Ravening Hood

by Kendrai Meeks

  “Tobias?”

  He didn’t look at me. He didn’t hesitate. One moment he was beside me, and the next, he had bounded up on the stage and had Amy in his arms, rescuing her from hitting the ground in the nick of time.

  “Call an ambulance!” he bellowed, and even as he moved, the fog moved with him.

  The fog moved with him.

  “Oh, my god. Amy!”

  The werewolf leapt off the stage just as the director ran on, his eyes tracking Abby Williams.

  “My star! My ingénue!”

  The crowd gathered in, making my stomach tighten. Tobias had been nervous in a group of this size in tight quarters; what was he going to do when he thought they might be intending to harm her? Was he going to wolf out right here and blow our cover? Would the yellow matron who controlled this territory send one of her righteous, or would Consuela come in person to terminate my friend? More importantly, what in the hell was wrong with Amy?

  A man on a cell nearby put a hand on my shoulder. “The paramedics are on their way. You know her?”

  I nodded. “She’s my roommate.”

  The man acknowledged me with a jerk of his head and pressed the cell back to his ear. “Okay, I’ll ask her. The dispatcher wants to know if she has any allergies.”

  “She’s allergic to cats.”

  “And what medical conditions. Does she have any of those?”

  “It’s not a medical condition!” I dropped to my knees and tried to do the impossible. My hands strained the smoke, but I couldn’t find anything tangible. The vampire who was doing this had no interest in being caught. “Leave her alone, asshole!”

  Just as Amy’s face went from red to purple, Tobias sucked down air, so deep he had to arch his back to contain it. As he exhaled with all his might, the fog blew away, but not before an airy voice whispered in my ear.

  You have been warned. Stay away.

  And then, the vampire was gone.

  THREE

  “This is all my fault.”

  Tobias played with a strand of my hair that had come loose from my braid and fallen across my eyes. My head rose and fall with the cycles of his breath. “No, it’s not.”

  I sat up and glared at him. “So it’s pure coincidence that my best friend was just attacked by a vampire in front of a large crowd?”

  “Of course, it isn’t coincidence, but that doesn’t mean it’s your fault. Don’t own their shame, Geri.”

  I’d been arguing the point with him in the hospital waiting room for the better part of two hours. He wasn’t going to budge, and neither was I. A quick sweep of the waiting room confirmed that, other than a shabby, bearded man wrapped in three layers of flannel snoozing on a pleather-wrapped loveseat, we were alone in the sterile, copacetic space. Other than the faces on some thirty-odd magazines spread out over every flat surface, no one was around to hear us.

  “They know about us,” I concluded, changing lanes. “The Ravens know we’re coming for them. Now that graduation is near and we’re about to leave for Istanbul, they’re sending off warning shots.”

  “Seems that way.”

  The flat tone of Tobias’s response made my head swivel. “Doesn’t that bother you?”

  “No, I think it’s a good sign.” My dumbfounded expression forced him to continue. “Of course, I’m pissed they came after Amy, but they wouldn’t send a warning to us if they didn’t see us as some sort of threat. Yes, Geri, they know we’re coming. And now, we know they’re scared.”

  “You know, this kind of shit is originally why I left home to come to Chicago. All I wanted was to be normal, not to have anything like threatening vampires or crazy wolves—no offense—hounding me. But instead of getting out of the supe world, I’ve only succeeded in sucking Amy into it.” The memory of seeing my roomie fainting, turning unnatural colors as the life leaked from her, reverberated in my mind, sharpening my anger. “I’m going to kill Vlad myself.”

  Tobias grinned and pulled me back to his chest, kissing my forehead and encircling me with his arms. “That’s my girl.”

  A rush of warmth flowed through me, and for a moment, it was almost like I’d recaptured my hood senses. My eyes tilted up to Tobias’s; his beard didn’t hide his smile. Was he feeling it too? The glow of it overpowered my senses. I opened my mouth to speak when a bell rang, followed a moment later by the elevator doors at the far end of the lobby opening.

  I was out of my seat the moment he appeared. Igor, grinning in amusement, sidestepped Caleb and I as we devolved into hormonal creatures, more octopi than humanoid. Even if it was a hospital, truth was truth: I hadn’t seen the guy in a month.

  “Thank god you’re okay.” The slayer covered my face in kisses as I wrapped my arms about him. “You are okay, aren’t you?” Another kiss on the cheek, another on the nose, all as I bobbed my head to answer his question. “I was so worried when you called. Igor picked us up and brought me straight here. Damn it, I missed you, Ger-Bear.”

  The woes of the world took a respite when his mouth finally lowered to mine. Caleb’s kiss was like the man who gave it: full of sunlight and warmth, and as likely to set me afire. I allowed myself three seconds of dismissing everything that existed besides him and me. When Igor started to get the rundown from Tobias, however, the time and place slapped me back into the moment.

  “It was one I hadn’t smelled before,” the werewolf was saying to the patron of the Dracule line. “Musky, spicy, like a shop that sells incense.”

  “And the accent?” Igor asked, his eyes unfixed as he sorted through his memories.

  Tobias shook his head. “I didn’t hear it. Only Geri did.”

  That was news to me. Caleb and I uncoiled as I walked toward the vampire and the wolf. “What do you mean, you didn’t hear it?” I asked. “Your hearing is, like, ten times better than mine, and it was so loud.”

  Igor repeated my previous scan of the room. He must have considered the other occupant as little a threat as I did. “A smoked vampire can finger into your ear. It can seem like he’s talking right into your brain. Even a werewolf would have difficulty overhearing. Did the voice appear to be male or female?”

  “Male,” I grumbled. “I didn’t recognize the accent. Then again, the only ones I’m fully aware of are Yooper, Argentinian, and British.”

  “English.” Even under present circumstances, the wolf would still correct me on that. “Igor, any ideas?”

  The vampire bit his bottom lip. “It’s not enough to go on. I might be able to get more clues when I talk to Amy.”

  If I had hackles, they’d be raised. “Why do you need to talk to Amy?”

  His deadpan expression was tinged with pity. “To learn what she experienced, and then to erase her memory, of course.”

  Instinct drove me to step up and block Igor’s path—even though he made no movement toward the patient area. “I don’t want her memory erased.”

  Igor chuckled. “Geri, please. We can’t have an innocent huey running around with the recollection of being fogged by a vampire. At best, other humans think she’s crazy. At worst, she develops PTSD from her near murder. Think how traumatic this must be for Amy. Don’t you want her to never have to deal with that again?”

  The truth lingered in those words. I knew it, and I couldn’t deny it. Having lived my life as a huey for the better part of a year, however, gave me a little more sympathy for their powerlessness when faced with a supernatural threat.

  “This wasn’t a random attack. The Ravens did this, and unless we’re willing to capitulate, I don’t see why they’d consider Amy any less of a target if we go forward with our plan to track them down. Once we leave for Istanbul, Amy’s going to be on her own. The only thing that will possibly protect her from another attack is her instinct to be afraid. You’re not going to do anything that dampens that at all. Her life may depend on it.”

  “But—”

  I cut off the vampire’s argument with the tip of my silver blade pushed to his throat. Just because I
was a huey didn’t mean I’d stopped being prepared. The only thing sharper than it I could wield was my glare, which I did.

  “It’s not negotiable.”

  “Understood.” Nonplussed, Igor stepped back. My blade couldn’t inflict any mortal wound on him, but it wouldn’t exactly tickle. “In that case, it’s on you to tell her something that lets her process this. What, prithee, do you think you can say to her?”

  Tobias, who’d slunk back to the least comfortable chairs ever, spoke up. “You could tell her the truth.”

  The ballsiness of the statement made all three of us turn to see if he’d grown a second head.

  The werewolf shrugged. “Igor’s right; her memory should be wiped. But if you’re not going to do that, then...”

  “Et tu, Brute?”

  Tobias grimaced. “I don’t speak Greek, hood.”

  “It’s Latin,” Caleb corrected with no little amount of smugness. He did so enjoy any opportunity to outshine Tobias. Which, given his slick sophistication, was frequent. “I agree with Geri. Fear and braveness are powerful defenses when paired. The question is what to tell Amy, not what to make her forget. It should be something powerful, but not traumatizing.”

  “She just was traumatized. Or what would you call a huey being—”

  Tobias cut himself off as his eyes scanned the room and focused on the corridor which led to the exam room. A moment later, Igor assumed the same stance, then Caleb. What they could hear I now relied on huey-powered eyes to confirm. A russet-skinned doctor, equipped with a stethoscope and a clipboard, studied each of us in turn.

  “I’m Miss Popowitz’s doctor. Are any of you a family member?”

  Igor stepped forward, and even without being able to see his face, I’d grown to recognize the shift in the air that occurred whenever he took someone under thrall.

  “We’re all family members,” the vampire said, pointing at first himself, then each of us in turn. “I’m her father, that’s her sister and brother, and her sister’s boyfriend.”

  The doctor twitched, his mind fighting Igor’s influence. Finally, after several tense moments in which I was beginning to mock up a case of the whinnies to get past administrative red tape, he coughed. “Yes, of course. Well, we just wanted to let you know, she’s fine. We’re still not certain what happened. Our leading guess right now is there was a malfunctioning fog machine that hadn’t been cleaned out in a while. If untended, those things can become little breeding grounds for molds and bacteria. We’re still waiting for a few more routine tests to come back, but she should be ready to go home shortly. As a precaution, she shouldn’t be home alone tonight, just in case there’s something we missed. Will any of you be staying with her?”

  I stepped forward. “Yes, of course, I will.”

  Caleb’s shoulders fell. He didn’t hide the frustration he felt. No doubt he, like me, had anticipated tonight being a milestone in our relationship. What was to be done, though?

  Meeting his eyes, I mouthed to him “tomorrow night.”

  The doctor acknowledged me with a nod. “Good. Just be sure she gets a good night’s rest, and don’t hesitate to give us a call or come back in if she has any problems tonight.”

  FOUR

  Back home a few hours later, Amy hit the end button just after three AM. I’d never met her parents; George and Katrina Popowitz didn’t care for Chicago, and despite repeated efforts, I’d never succumbed to Amy’s attempts to drag me to New York City. Nevertheless, it spoke to their credit that they took a call from their daughter in the middle of the night and that they had to be convinced three times in the ten-minute conversation not to hop a plane and come force her into passive convalescence.

  “I guess I’ll head to bed, then.” Amy smiled and reached for me. Or at least, I thought she was reaching for me. When her hand settled on Tobias, however, I wasn’t the only one who felt the awkwardness about us sharpen. “Thank you, but next time I’m about to pass out on stage and you sweep in to save the day, I insist... Don’t hesitate to perform CPR. Mouth-to-mouth saves lives every day.”

  Tobias grinned, a gleaming set of teeth setting my own irrationally on edge. “Glad to see you’re okay.”

  As Amy’s cheeks blushed, and she turned way too coquettish to be talking with a grieving werewolf, my concern for her health took a nosedive. Amy let out a little yelp when I pushed her toward her room. “Your doctor said you needed rest. Go rest.”

  “But you guys seem wide awake, maybe we can just stay up and hang out?”

  I clicked my tongue. “When you’re the one with the PhD in medicine that says that, we’ll do it. Good night, Amy.”

  Tobias admonished me when I’d shut her door.

  “What?”

  Annoyance colored his words. “Let the poppet have a little comfort.”

  “Oh, my god. You have never sounded more British than you do right now.”

  “I’m not...”

  “British.” I dismissed him with a wave of my hand as we both made our way into my bedroom. “Yeah, I know. All I’m saying is, I know Amy’s I’m-coming-on-to-you script. You’re too sweet to shoot her down, so I did it for you.”

  “Just because I can never love again doesn’t mean I don’t like to be flirted with.” Tobias closed the door and locked it—a precautionary normalcy since the time she’d nearly walked in on him wearing his wolf. “This wouldn’t be an issue if she understood why I could never be with her.”

  I paused at the closet, a hanger in hand as I took off my sweater. “I thought we discussed that back at the hospital.”

  “I said one thing, you said something different. That’s not a discussion, it’s an opening statement.” His finger went to work trying to loosen his tie, but all the effort resulted in was a tighter knot. “Bollocks! Do you see now why I hate wearing monkey suits?”

  He huffed and puffed and ripped the tie into shreds.

  No doubt about it. If Tobias’s suit was going to survive to see another night—and it should, because every woman benefitted from the vision—I’d have to be the one to rescue it from his wolfie ways.

  I waved him to me. “Oh my god, just come here.”

  As the puppy obeyed my command, I continued, “Don’t get me wrong, I love Amy. I never thought I could be real friends with a huey. Even before I was one, Amy proved me wrong, though. But to bring her into our world... I’m not sure Miss I-got-it-at-Saks-and-not-on-sale can handle that. There’s a reason we keep hueys in the dark. Believe me, I know all those ones at WWL who are privy are going to regret it someday.”

  “And what I’m saying is that, as of tonight, Amy already is in our world.” He stilled my hands as I undid the last button of his dress shirt and pushed it aside, taking my eyes off the bottom of his undershirt and back to his eyes. “Geri, she was attacked by a vampire, more than likely as a warning to us. We didn’t hesitate to rush in to protect her. If we had ignored her, so would they from now on. Our compassion for her has condemned her; they come for her again if they think it’s likely to rattle us. She needs to be prepared. She has to know, for her own sake.”

  The truth of his words struck guilt deep within. I pulled away. “It’s like being pregnant—she can’t just know a little. She’s in all the way or out.”

  “At least on the inside, we can protect her. Help her protect herself.” Tobias shimmied off the shirt and pulled the undershirt over his head. “I’m sure Inga could assign her security until we deal with the Ravens. If we’re lucky, her guard will be some sexy, buff vamp who’s really into smart and loyal blondes.”

  “Tobias Somfield, we are not fixing Amy up with a vampire!” Realizing the volume I’d reached, I threw a hand over my mouth.

  Tobias turned his head, angling his ear. “I think she’s asleep. Speaking of which...” He went to work on his belt, and I suddenly found I needed to be very busily reorganizing my drawers. “You seem spirited tonight. Reclaiming some of your nocturnal habits?”

  “Adrenaline, I guess. Plus, I dran
k a lot of coffee before I left for the theater.”

  “Why, did you want to be—” His words dropped off as a rustle of cloth suggested his pants had done the same. “Oh, that’s right. Caleb.”

  I didn’t know why I was admitting it to him. I shouldn’t be. What business of Tobias’s was my love life? “We had a big night planned.”

  “And I would have, what, stood guard while you guys finally got busy? Knitted and read magazines?”

  “I hear there’s a new issue of Fangs & Fur Monthly.” My attempt at humor died on his grimace. “I don’t know. I guess I assumed you’d just hang out in the lobby or the employee gym, like you always do. But let me point out again, not my fault. Blame the fact that you’re my after-hours security detail on Cody.”

  Tobias coughed a laugh. “Oh, believe me, I blame a lot of things on Cody,” he mumbled. “I got a sheet wrapped around myself, Geri, so you can stop pretending to be looking for the perfect pair of socks. God, you’ve become so proper. As if you haven’t seen naked wolves all your life.”

  I had. Of course, I had. But Tobias wasn’t just another wolf. He was Tobias, the werewolf who slept on my floor, curled up in a ball of fur, and occasionally, when I was about during the day, in my bed, naked as the day was long.

  And long seemed the operative word in that analogy.

  “Since when is modesty something to be ashamed of?”

  “Since it’s not your nature. I don’t care if you’re technically a huey now; you’re still culturally a hood. And as a hood in the way that counts, you should understand that what I’m saying is right. Amy needs to know. Unless you want to—and I use this phrase only as a metaphor—throw her to the wolves. And by wolves, I mean Ravens. And by Ravens, I mean the evil pack of vampires who’ve already killed at least two of the people I love and, likely, one of yours.”

  Damn him and his ability to manipulate my emotions. “Fine, you’re right.” But if he thought I was the only one in for a penny, Tobias was about to get smacked in the head by the whole pound. “And if she’s going to be in the know, she should probably come to Istanbul with us.”