A busboy came out of another steel door, propped it with his foot while he threw the contents of a bin into a nearby dumpster. Startled, he froze when he caught sight of the motley group.
“Bad night,” Per said to the busboy. “Got mugged by a gang of sailors. Sorry stuff.”
The cigarette in the corner of the busboy’s mouth slipped from his lips. “I can call the cops,” he said in unaccented American English.
Hawthorne held up his cell phone. “Already taken care of.”
The busboy cast a disbelieving eye at the five weres. Abruptly, he vanished inside.
Hawthorne shrugged. “He’s going to call the police anyway.”
A black full-sized Hummer pulled into the alley, and Hawthorne motioned to it. “That’s us.”
Per was the last to get in, and sadly, he couldn’t help but notice Sage sat in the seat farthest away from him. She wasn’t speaking to anyone but neither was she shrieking with fear.
Man, what am I supposed to do?
~ ~ ~
Chapter Thirteen
A good cat deserves a good rat. - French Proverb
Ulric showed up on his Ducati motorcycle four days after Sage went back to her apartment. He parked the bike beside a metallic tungsten-colored Dodge Challenger and put his helmet on the dash of the motorcycle. Holding the helmet in place with his hand, he leaned toward the driver’s side window of the Challenger. The window came down and Per said, “What?”
“You’re like a total stalker,” Ulric said, looking toward Sage’s apartment complex. It was a third-rate place catering to college students and people who worked for minimum wage. The walls were dirty stucco. The trees had died. Cars parked there were ten years and older, so the Challenger stood out. “Someone’s going to call the police because they think you’re a drug dealer.”
“I doubt it. They’re used to it around here.”
“Hawthorne said she totally laid out Martinez and plus a few other things, so what do you think is going to happen? She’ll be so grateful for your protectiveness? Mr. Never-going-to-happen-to-me.” Ulric covered his mouth with his gloved hand and tittered. “Heeheehee.”
Per sighed. “She hasn’t set foot out of the apartment for four days. Her roommates think she’s losing her mind. First she disappears and strange people come looking for her, search through her belongings. They call the police and the police say, ‘It’s being handled.’ Isn’t being connected so nifty? Then she comes back saying all of nothing and suddenly drops all of her classes and doesn’t go to work. She sits in her room and stares out a window.”
“Oh, really,” Ulric said. “Did you talk to the roomies?”
“I overheard them talking about her,” Per said shortly. “Remember, shifter hearing?” It wasn’t the only thing he’d overheard. The roommates were privy to some knowledge about Sage’s parents which Per hadn’t known. Sage hadn’t been speaking of only Martinez when she said she didn’t like men who overpowered women. She’d been speaking of her own abusive father. Her father did not know where Sage was living, and the roommates had instructions if he ever called, they were to say she moved out months before without leaving a forwarding address. If her father ever showed up at their doorstep, they were to scream until someone called the police. While walking to the bus stop, the two roomies wondered if her father had done something else to Sage during her absence.
What kind of man caused those kinds of precautions?
“You wouldn’t believe what the L.A. Clan is saying about you,” Ulric went on conversationally. “Snake things. Pixie things. The girl faced down Martinez on her own. And hey, you were dying. Ka-snap. The big D.”
Per blew air out between his lips. “If you think that motorcycle is faster than this Challenger, you’re wrong.”
“A V-8 Hemi motor isn’t going to let you catch this bad boy.”
“Ulric, shouldn’t you be chasing some human around her living room? You could try the pet store. Hang out where the cat toys are.”
Ulric laughed again. “Wheeler couldn’t get you on your cell. We took a poll, and I guessed you’d be here, which meant I got volunteered to check. And voila, I was right.”
Per glanced at his cell phone. He held it up and realized it was dead. Quickly he connected the charger while saying, “Something wrong?”
“Well, Hawthorne called and said Martinez slipped through his net. He got to Mexico, and he vanished down toward the Guatemalan border.”
“Crap.” Per looked toward Sage’s apartment. He knew which one was hers. It was the third one from the left. The second window was her bedroom. He’d seen her moving around. The roommates had left for college and jobs earlier, and he knew she was alone in there. “I hoped Hawthorne would be on top of that.”
“L.A.’s a big territory. Not every were is simpatico with the clans.” Ulric shrugged. It was true some of the outlaw weres would help Martinez just to stick it to the Council. Per’s phone began beeping as it registered the multitude of messages left on it. “There, messages from Wheeler, Donovan, and I think your mother called. Also, Emma said to tell you she’ll come down if you want.”
“She doesn’t blame Sage, does she?” Sage had called Emma with a fake message to meet her at the park. Emma had been lured into Martinez’s trap just as Sage had.
“Emma? Doubt it. She’s…compassionate.”
Per sighed.
“Dude?” Ulric said. “Why don’t you try the old gold standard?”
“What?”
“Flowers and chocolates.” Ulric grinned broadly. “You could put catnip in the flowers.”
“Are you really sure about that Ducati’s motor because I’ll plow you under the road. They can put you in the pussy section at the pet cemetery.”
Ulric was still laughing as he put his helmet on, restarted the engine, and carefully backed up. The motorcycle roared off with a little condescending wave from the shifter.
*
The sun set, and the weather was nice enough for Aurora that kids were still outside in the commons playing. Per watched them from the open car window as he drank from 7-Eleven cup of coffee. It was lukewarm and he grimaced. He glanced up at Sage’s window and then back at the kids playing a particularly gruesome game of football. One side was remarkably good at tackling their opponents, as evidenced by the sheer amount of grass stains on the other side’s clothing. The two groups had stopped to argue about the disparity in the general sizes of the players on each team. The non-grass-stained side had a preponderance of larger kids.
Per had caught a few people looking at him sideways. There were two Hispanic teenagers discussing whether he was a pervert or the police. One young woman said derogatorily, “He too pretty for a policeman.”
“You are too pretty to be a policeman,” someone else said, and Per restrained the urge to leap out of his seat. He hadn’t seen her leave the apartment. She must have gone out the window around the backside, and she’d approached the Challenger in bare feet. She had snuck up on him as if he was blind and deaf. It wasn’t a good thing for an Elite Cat Warrior, and he could only blame his own muddled mental thought processes as a distraction.
Per looked calmly at Sage. “I think the local police would have a problem with my nocturnal activities.”
Sage stood near the driver’s side door, dressed in an old baseball jersey and ragged blue jeans. Her sandy blonde hair fell over her shoulders, and her hazel eyes glimmered. She didn’t look unhappy to see him. She didn’t look happy. She didn’t look anything.
“What do want with me?” she asked.
“I want you to be safe,” Per said. He put the coffee in the console and exited the car. He was surprised she didn’t back away. He examined her fatigued features and catalogued the lines there. She wasn’t sleeping very well, if at all. “I want you to not to have to worry about someone coming after you. I want you to be happy.”
Sage looked at the ground. Her hands came together, and he could see she was twisting the cameo ring on her right
hand. “Do you really think you can buy me?”
Per took a deep breath. “Wheeler thought you could use a cash reserve.” Actually Per had thought that and convinced Wheeler to make the decision. Enough money to get her through a year of college and living expenses had been deposited into her banking account. She wouldn’t have to struggle and work in a convenience store that was robbed twice a week.
“Wheeler thought,” she repeated, continuing to twist her ring.
“Okay, I thought you could use a little breathing room, and no, I don’t think I can buy you.”
“Is that what you call this?” she asked as she waved at the Challenger. “The neighbors think you’re either a drug dealer or a narc.”
“I could paint the hood with primer,” he offered. “Get a chain and put a lot of dents in it, too.”
Sage made a face. “Really, what do you want?”
“My name is Peter Forester,” Per said, irritated she wouldn’t call him by his name. “Everyone’s called me Per since I was a baby. My mother and father couldn’t get anyone to stop calling me that.”
Sage made an impatient sound.
Per took another deep breath. He’d thought about it for days. The words exploded out like magma from an active volcano. “I want to show you a place in the mountains where there’s a crystal-clear spring bubbling out of the rocks. I want you to know that being a were can be wonderful as well as interesting. I want to introduce you to some of the weres who are genuinely good people. I want you to trust me and because this muh-muh-mating thing happened, I feel like you don’t even want to try.”
He stopped and closed his eyes because it all sounded so frickin’ dorky. After a long moment, there wasn’t a reply, and he prepared himself to open his eyes and see that she was long gone. But he opened them and she was still there, staring at him with wide eyes.
Finally, Sage said, “Muh-muh-mating thing?”
“I’m having a little problem with the whole concept,” Per admitted hoarsely.
Her perfect bow mouth opened. He loved that mouth. He could stare at that mouth for a month and not get tired of it. She said, “You mean you’re not ready to jump in with both feet yelling, ‘Banzai!’?”
“No, it makes me a little nervous,” Per said.
“You? Nervous? You’re like a rock,” Sage said and laughed at her words.
Per stared in sheer admiration. She was lovely in other respects, but when her mouth curved like that, she was a goddess. “Shifters are like humans, with all their foibles, every one.”
Her hands returned to each other, and she twisted the cameo ring again. “You didn’t have to return the ring.”
“It looks old,” he said. “I thought you shouldn’t have to lose that, too.”
“Along with what else?”
“Your freedom? Your humanity? Some of the choices you shouldn’t have had to make?”
“Thank you,” she whispered.
Per wanted to step forward, but he made himself hold in place. Not the right time. Not. Not. Not.
“I’m flying to Seattle tomorrow,” she said and Per blinked.
Oh crap. She’s leaving. She’s not coming back, and what the hell do I know about the Washington Clan? Nothing.
She studied him frankly. It surprised him. It shouldn’t have. Emma said diffident, but this Sage had survived. She was a different woman from the one Emma had known. “I see,” he said, but he didn’t see. His heart was sitting in the pit of his stomach wallowing about like a drowning man.
Sage’s head tilted as she examined his expression. “You’re disappointed.”
“Yes.”
“I’m coming back,” she added.
The heart got a life preserver. Whoo-hoo!
Per thought about it for a moment. The parents were in Seattle. The abusive father was in Seattle. The abusive father who had beaten Sage before was in Seattle. He frowned. “You’re going to see your parents.”
“My mother,” she said. “I want her to come down here to live. I won’t tell her, but she needs to be safe from my father. It’s a long story.”
“I’ll come, too.” Per made the decision in an instant. His mate didn’t travel far away from him without his protection. He didn’t think a human could get the upper hand on Sage any longer, but the thought of allowing the possibility filled him with anger. No way.
“You don’t have to come,” Sage said. Judging by her conflicted expression, she wasn’t certain if she wanted him to come with her.
“Your father isn’t to be trusted,” Per announced baldly. Then he winced.
“How do you?” Sage shrugged. “I guess you know everything about me.”
“I overheard your roomies talking about him,” Per admitted. “You probably heard them, too.”
Sage nodded. “I’m not afraid of him anymore. I took on giant snakes and Martinez. How can I be afraid of a mere mortal?”
Per smiled slowly. “I like that. Will you let me come with you?”
“I smell chocolate and roses,” Sage said instead of answering.
Per glanced over his shoulder. In addition to coffee, the local 7-Eleven had a meager selection of chocolates and some half-dead flowers. Just on the off chance Ulric might have had a point, Per had purchased the best the store had, which wasn’t much but was better than nothing. “I brought you some gifts.”
“Flowers and candy,” Sage said wistfully. “No one’s ever given me anything like that nor such a huge amount of money.”
“Their loss,” Per said sincerely. He yanked the two items out of the Challenger and put them in her trembling hands. She sniffed the flowers and fingered the chocolate box.
Clearly, Sage didn’t know how to proceed any more than Per did. After a moment, she said reluctantly, “I need to get some sleep. I’m on standby at the airport tomorrow, and I don’t know how long it’s going to take to get a flight.”
“I’ll arrange the tickets,” he said carefully. If he couldn’t get the clan’s jet then he would buy some decent seats for the both of them. The clan paid pretty well and Wheeler was good with investments. Per could afford it, and if he had his way, Sage would be getting a new car, as well.
“It might take a few days to convince her,” Sage warned.
“If she’s anything like you, it’ll be worth it,” Per said.
Sage smiled. “So you’ll call me about the flight?”
“I’ll pick you up about eight a.m.,” Per said. His fingers itched to take her hand and press a kiss there. She had touched him when he was a tiger. He had touched her once as a human to help her get up. The absence of her touch felt like a part of him was missing.
Sage hesitated as she looked at him. “You’re just going to go with this?” she asked.
Per didn’t pretend to misunderstand. “It’s like getting your mother. You’re worth any effort. I know it. It took me some time to figure it out, but once I’ve made up my mind, I won’t be giving up easily. You need time, and I’ll give it to you.”
Please, not five years like Emma and Wheeler, but time, just for you, Sage. I don’t know exactly how this is going to work, but it’s going to, no matter what I have to do.
Her swift movement shocked him. Sage dropped the flowers and the candy and was pressed up against him in the next moment. Her hands bracketed his face, and her hazel eyes looked at him. Frozen, he didn’t do anything except feel the warmth of her flesh against his, the weight of her breasts against his chest. It was better than anything he’d ever felt before, and his heart thundered in his chest.
In the background, Per heard one of the football playing kids give a wolf whistle, but it didn’t matter.
“I just want to see something,” she murmured and pressed her lips against his. His arms were still as she explored his mouth with innocent enthusiasm.
His eyes drifted shut, and her fingers stroked his face as she slanted her mouth against his. Per couldn’t help his response any more than he could deny his tiger. Finally unfrozen, his arms curled
around her and gathered her up. His head bent to hers, and before a minute went by, she moaned into his mouth. He could feel the warmth of her flesh and taste the uniqueness that was her. Nothing could be more right.
An endless eternity later, Sage was the one who wiggled and pulled away, looking at him as if stars were falling from his eyes. “Oh my.”
“Oh my, indeed,” Per muttered. “What did you want to see?”
“If it was all that it was rumored to be,” Sage said. “Lena told me all kinds of things about mates the night we spent at the L.A. Clan’s headquarters.”
“Was it?” Per was going to have to call Lena in L.A. and ask her what she’d told Sage because it was going to drive him insane if he didn’t know.
“I think we can say it was.” Sage smiled at him again, and his insides lurched.
“I’m going to walk you to your door,” Per announced. “I’m going to stand there while you lock it, and I’m on the outside. Then we’re going to get your mother all moved down here. Then I’m going to court you. I think you’re not planning to take summer classes, so we’ll have plenty of time this summer. If you’ve got a problem with any of that, you should let me know now.”
Sage retrieved her flowers and chocolate. It didn’t seem to matter to her at all that two roses were bent or that the box of chocolates was scuffed. She held out her free hand, and Per took it joyfully, marveling at the idiot he’d been a short period of time before.
When she smiled tentatively at him, he couldn’t help returning the smile.
“Tell me something, Per,” she said.
“Anything,” he answered immediately.
“Are there really sparkly vampires?”
Per groaned.
The End.
About the Author
C.L. Bevill has lived in Texas, Virginia, Arizona, and Oregon. She once was in the US Army and a graphic illustrator. She holds degrees in social-psychology and counseling. She is the author of Bubba and the Dead Woman, Bubba and the 12 Deadly Days of Christmas, Bubba and the Missing Woman, Bayou Moon, and Shadow People, among others. Presently she lives with her husband and her daughter and continues to constantly write. She can be reached at www.clbevill.com or you can read her blog at http://www.carwoo.blogspot.com
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