by Lauren Esker
"Yeah. There's blood too." He collected a few dark-stained blades of grass. Nicole shuddered.
"Avery's?"
"I'll know in a minute. I need you to stand lookout for me." Jack put the bags into his pocket, then began to strip out of his jacket and shoulder holster. "If anyone's coming, if you even see anyone looking this way, tell me."
Nicole could see the Hodgsons' backyard only in narrow stripes between the tree trunks, and there was a high wooden privacy fence on the other side of the yard. Still, as Jack stripped naked and handed each item of clothing to her, she couldn't help feeling terribly public. "Are you sure about this?"
"No, but I need to know more than human senses can tell me." He was a lean pale shape now, naked in the dark. The final item he pressed into her hands was his pair of glasses, neatly folded. And then, with a disconcerting little wrench, a huge dark bulk of shaggy fur hulked above her.
Nicole took an involuntary step backward. She'd never seen bears except in zoos, safely on the other side of bars and moats, and was unprepared for the shocking size of Jack's other self. The great muscular hump of his shoulders was as high as the top of her head. He seemed terribly out of place in the quiet suburban backyard, like a beast from the last Ice Age, transplanted somehow into this disarmingly normal setting. She'd never been afraid of Avery, or even thought of his wolf form as anything other than an extension of Avery himself, but the huge bear sparked a flare of atavistic terror from the prey-animal core of her.
Seeming oblivious to her reaction, Jack put his shaggy head close to the ground and snuffled around the site of the altercation. Then he ambled across the lawn, head down. Nicole followed, astonished by how quickly he moved despite his apparent clumsy slowness. She needed three or four steps to each of his. As the muscles flexed under his hide, she caught glimpses of scars, visible as hairless flashes of skin where the fur hadn't grown back. He had a lot of them. Really quite a lot.
At the tall wooden fence, Jack glanced around warily, and shifted back. Now that she wasn't trying quite so hard not to look, Nicole couldn't help noticing his scars were visible in human form too, especially a mass of crisscrossing parallel lines (claw marks? she wondered) all over his right arm and his abdomen. A large tattoo of a grizzly bear across his right shoulder and biceps was partly obscured by scar tissue. She recalled what Avery had said about him, that he used to be a mercenary. Right now, he looked exactly like her idea of one, the darkness stripping him of the warm glint of humor that normally softened his rugged features.
"Avery was here," Jack said, taking back the bundle of clothing. "He went this way."
Her curiosity about the scars' implied story fled, replaced by mingled relief and worry. "Was he hurt?"
"Some of it's his blood, yeah. Not as much as I was afraid." Jack knelt to tie his shoes, speaking as he looked up at her, the light of the neighbors' yard glinting off his glasses lenses. "There was at least one human, or possibly a shifter in human form, and something else. Now I get what you and Avery are talking about. It's werewolf, but not. And it definitely smells like something that's been in the sewers."
Right now she couldn't care less about any werewolves except one. "But where's Avery?"
"If I were going to guess, he's following it." Jack touched the fence lightly. "See here? Claw marks. It went over. Avery went around."
"Why is he following it?" Nicole protested as they went out to the street. "He's hurt, he has no backup—"
"Carpe diem, I guess. Seize the day. It's here, he's here. Show me where you saw Bob."
"Where I saw—what?"
"Got to call it something. I'd rather not keep saying 'the creature'. It makes me feel like an extra in a B horror movie."
She pointed out the general area of the sidewalk where she'd seen it emerge. "And then it went into the yard over there. I didn't see Avery at all."
They walked to the end of the street. Like many subdivisions, the roads curved to slow traffic; this one joined a U-shaped road with a cul-de-sac at one end.
"This is hopeless," Nicole said. "They could have gone anywhere. Can't you do something?"
"Sadly, bears are not as good for tracking as wolves," Jack murmured. One hand had slipped under his jacket to his gun. "It's not the sense of smell. We're great at that. But unfortunately, we're just not very ..."
"Inconspicuous?" Nicole suggested.
"Yeah, people tend to notice."
"Avery!" Nicole called softly, cupping her hands around her mouth.
The similarity to calling for a missing dog wasn't lost on her. However, to her surprise, it actually worked. Avery, limping even worse than usual, slunk out from under an ornamental border planting.
Jack laughed in relief. "Avery, you idiot! We thought you'd be halfway to Puget Sound by now."
Avery gave a tired, displeased snort.
Nicole put her arm around his neck, then jerked away when she felt tacky dampness on his fur. "You went and got yourself hurt, didn't you?" She wrinkled her nose. "Also, wow. You need a bath."
"Let's get you inside," Jack suggested. "Not the Hodgsons'—it's full of city cops. Your car? ... no, more room in mine. C'mon."
With Avery limping between them, they went back up the street, with a brief pause at Avery's car, where Nicole picked up his clothes. Jack then made a beeline for a dark-colored Ford Explorer, parked with one tire on the sidewalk behind the police cars, and opened the back door for them. Avery stood on his hind legs and planted his front paws on the floor mat, but seemed a little stuck at that point, so Jack picked him up unceremoniously and deposited him in the backseat.
Although she was not a person who had her head easily turned by cars, Nicole couldn't help pausing to take a look at the cherry-red Camaro parked behind the Explorer. It wasn't the sort of vehicle she expected to see at a crime scene.
"Noah's," Jack said, seeing her looking. "His idea of low-key is basically hiding in plain sight."
There were tiger stripes on the Camaro's fender. "I am going to venture a guess," Nicole said, climbing in after them, "that he's a tiger."
"Right? And this is the guy we have doing our cover-up."
Avery shifted back suddenly, and said, "I still think keeping our existence secret is doing more harm than good."
He let his head drop back against the seat. He was pale, with blood drying in sticky swatches along his sides. There was a bruise across the side of his face.
Jack leaned over the back of the seat and fished around, coming up with a large first-aid kit. The rearmost row of seats had been taken out of the SUV, leaving it open for cargo; Nicole glimpsed a clutter of sports and camping equipment. "Any specific reason," Jack asked, "or is that a statement of general principle?"
Avery cracked his eyes open. "The people who tried to break into the Hodgson place knew I was a werewolf."
Jack whistled as he cracked the first-aid case open. "Shit. That's not good."
"Yeah. They were trying to trank me. I assume they came for the kids." He pushed himself up in the seat, blinking. "Are the kids okay?"
"They've fine," Nicole reassured him, planting a hand in the middle of his chest and pushing him back down. "I just saw them in the house with the Hodgson kids."
"Wait, okay, so are we talking about one group of home invaders, or two?" Jack asked. "Because I know there was a werewolf here. Nicole saw it. What were they, humans or shifters?"
Avery raised his head. "You saw it?"
"I did," Nicole confirmed. "It was very ..." She tried to find the right word. "Strange."
"You're telling me." He made another effort to get up. "I need to talk to the Hodgsons. Their household security—"
"Can wait," Jack said, shoving him back down.
"Avery," Nicole said, "lie still and let Jack take care of you."
Avery submitted to having his scrapes cleaned. Jack seemed to know what he was doing. Nicole wasn't sure if he had medical training, or if his easy competence at first aid was simply something that went along
with his overall air of self-assurance. She sat on Avery's other side, holding his hand.
"Did you track the other werewolf down?" Nicole asked.
Avery shook his head. "There's a storm drain at a park a couple of blocks that way. Guess where it went."
"So it's definitely getting around in the sewers," Jack said, dabbing at Avery's ribs with disinfectant. "But you didn't answer my question. Were the people who tried to trank you shifters?"
"No," Avery said. "There were three humans, two in the Hodgsons' backyard and one hanging back with a dart gun. Standing lookout," he added thoughtfully.
"Why a dart gun?" Jack mused.
"Maybe they didn't want to shoot innocent bystanders," Nicole suggested.
"Or maybe," Avery said, "they knew a werewolf might show up."
They all fell silent for a moment, due to the police officers having come out of the house. Although the windows in the back of the SUV were tinted glass, they all instinctively ducked out of sight until the engines started up. Nicole sat up cautiously and peeked out. The police cars' taillights flashed as they pulled out, one after the other.
"On the bright side," Jack said, resuming the conversation as if there had been no interruption, "at least they weren't trying to kill you."
Nicole looked at him sharply. "I heard a gunshot. At least I thought I did."
"You did," Avery said. "They shot at me, but switched to nonlethal methods as soon as they realized what I was."
Jack grimaced, folding up the first-aid kit. After cleaning Avery's injuries, he'd left them unbandaged for shifter healing to take care of. "Armed humans going around trying to kidnap shifters. Sounds like a bogeyman story. Do you have any idea what they were—Special Ops or civilian, American or foreign, what?"
"American, and I don't think they're highly trained. They seemed shocked to see me. If we've stumbled onto an organized operation, I would have expected they'd be better at it. They were fit guys, but not experts. Private security would be my guess. The woman, I'm not sure about. There aren't a lot of women in that game. She could be, but I think she's involved some other way."
"It still gives a little more credence to Chester's suspicions, don't you think?" Nicole asked. "And yours as well, Avery."
Jack looked puzzled. "Who's Chester?"
They filled him in briefly on their visit to Chester's trailer, and the old man's tale of his missing pack. "I speculated afterwards there might be such a thing as urban werewolf packs, and maybe Chester's kids fell in with one," Avery said. "But this is worse. I thought in the beginning the kids might have been experimented on. What if someone's going around scooping up homeless shifters and, God, I don't know ... doing anything they like with them, at that point."
"One crisis at a time, shall we?" Jack asked dryly. "The rabbit hole clearly goes deeper than we expected, but it's not necessarily a threat to all shifter-kind."
"Definitely a higher priority for the SCB than we've been treating it as, though."
"Oh yes. Can't argue with you there."
Nicole peeked out of the smoked glass windows again at the sound of voices. Noah was on the porch, talking to DiDi Hodgson—or, more like being talked at by DiDi Hodgson, who looked agitated. "I think I'd better go talk down Mrs. Hodgson, from the look of things."
Avery sat up, and wobbled. "I'll come with you."
"You'll stay right there for another few minutes 'til you get your legs under you," Jack told him. Nicole squeezed Avery's hand and hopped down from the SUV.
"But I can't," DiDi Hodgson was saying as Nicole hurried up the path.
Noah had backed away to the edge of the porch, holding up his hands. "Not my area. Look, we can arrange security for the rest of the night—"
"But that isn't—"
"Hi," Nicole said, huffing a bit as she climbed the steps. "Is there a problem here?"
Mrs. Hodgson turned tear-filled eyes on Nicole. "Ms. Yates, I'm so sorry. I want to help you, I want to help these children, but I can't—the risk, you see, I didn't know there would be—"
Nicole reached out to grasp her hands. "Mrs. Hodgson, please, don't apologize to me. Your home was nearly invaded. You can be expected to have some concerns."
"By armed men!" Mrs. Hodgson burst out. "I couldn't talk about it properly with—with the police, because I saw—Our bedroom is above the backyard. I saw them shoot at that other person, the SCB agent, the wolf one. He's all right, isn't he?"
"He's fine," Nicole reassured her. "They didn't hit him. It must have been terrible for you, though."
"I didn't know what to do. Knowing my children were in the house, and Amelia's bedroom downstairs—" She swiped her hand across her eyes. "Ms. Yates, I don't want to turn those children out, but—I have my own children to worry about, too."
"We don't want your family to be in danger, either. We don't just do home checks to protect the foster children, and we have removed children because they pose an unacceptable risk to the family." Though she hadn't expected she'd have to do it with babies. "Are you willing to keep them for the rest of the night? We'll post a guard." Jack and Avery would surely do it, if no one else was available.
Mrs. Hodgson made stammering demurrals. The gist of it, Nicole gathered, was that she didn't want to put the blame on the kids, but she wanted them out of the house now. Looking at it from Mrs. Hodgson's point of view, with her own children involved, Nicole couldn't blame her. Still, she'd hoped to avoid having to deal with that problem on top of everything else tonight.
Avery and Jack arrived on the scene just then. Avery dressed again, and leaning heavily on his cane.
"Oh, Avery, it turns out Mrs. Hodgson witnessed the shooting too," Nicole said, and having shamelessly foisted them off on each other, disappeared into the house. She was pretty sure it would be easier to get the kids ready to go without Avery hovering around being anxious and defensive on their behalf, not to mention Mrs. Hodgson getting into an increasing tizzy about it.
The puppies were all wide awake and very active, stirred up by the activity in the house. The Hodgson children were also still up—it was very evident that they regarded the attempted break-in as the most amazing thing that had ever happened to them—and helped Nicole locate a pair of smaller pet kennels that had been used for the family's cats in the past. Avery was going to hate this, but Avery would just have to deal with it. The kids would be much safer locked up, and she didn't think her nerves could handle puppies crawling around the inside of the car right now.
The Hodgson kids helped her carry the kennels out to the porch. Noah's red Camaro was gone from the curb, and Mrs. Hodgson was sitting on the porch swing with Avery, who was holding her hand. She seemed much calmer. Avery could've made a good therapist, Nicole thought; he was naturally empathetic and seemed to have an easy time winning people's trust. The phrase therapy wolf popped into her mind, and she choked on an inappropriate laugh.
"Where's Jack?" she asked. Avery and Mrs. Hodgson were alone on the porch.
"Doing a security sweep," Avery said. The skin around his eyes tightened when he saw the kennels, and the puppies pawing to get out of them, but he didn't say anything about it, keeping his attention on Mrs. Hodgson instead. "He's going to stay the rest of the night, and make sure your family is safe."
"Thank you," she said earnestly, clutching his hands. "I really am so sorry. I wanted to be stronger. But ... my children."
"I get it," Avery said. "No, really, I do. My people ... there's nothing that matters more to us than protecting our children." A slight, involuntary grimace crossed his face as he said it.
And this seemed, finally, to bring an end to what had turned out to be a very long night. Mrs. Hodgson said her goodbyes and shepherded her children back into the house. Avery reached for one of the kennels, which Nicole gratefully relinquished. The puppies weren't very heavy individually, but all four at once, clambering around and making the weight in the kennels shift constantly, were a headache and a half.
As they walked down the
path, Nicole realized she'd already grown so used to the Halloween decor that she hardly noticed it anymore. Maybe she'd drop a word in her sister's ear that they could buy a few extra decorations this year. The kids would probably enjoy it.
"You don't have to come back to my place—" Avery began.
"Your place, nothing," Nicole said. "We're going to Erin and Tim's. It's much closer."
"But," he protested. This possibility did not seem to have occurred to him. "You just saw what happened here. You can't possibly want to sic those people on your sister's family!"
"No, but it's three a.m., and we're both exhausted, and frankly, between the two of us, I'm the one who's in better shape to drive." She made a point of it by setting out for her car, rather than his. "If there is someone after these kids, they must already know of my connection to them. I'm not going to make it worse by making it more obvious."
"The break-in at your office wasn't unrelated after all."
"I don't think so. How else could they have found the Hodgsons so quickly? It wasn't in our official, computerized records, but there was an abundant paper trail to follow."
"All the more reason not to take them to your sister's."
"Avery, right now I don't care. I'm worn out and I don't want to fight about it. If Tim and Erin are worried, we'll relocate in the morning, or maybe they can take their kids out of town for a few days. Besides, whatever it was that you fought tonight, it was at your place last night. You think we'd be safer there?"
This made him lapse into silence, which she immediately felt guilty for. Although she was reasonably confident he hadn't been hurt badly, he was still shaky and weak, his high-powered shifter healing depleting his body's energy reserves as it worked.
They strapped the carriers into the backseat. The puppies were howling now. "No, kids, don't cry," Avery begged, poking his fingers through the bars to pet their little noses. "It'll be okay. We'll have you out before you know it. It would be a bad idea to let them out here, wouldn't it?"
"Afraid so," Nicole sighed. "But we have to get something better than kennels and boxes. We'll have to get some actual car seats, or at the very least, something to restrain dogs for travel."
