The Night Beat

by Gini Koch

  “They’re trying to determine how deep our mole might be,” Monty said.

  “Or moles. Jack sure seemed to think we had plenty.”

  “Which could mean they do, too, or could simply mean they aren’t sure about us,” Ken said. “But, Vic, you said something just now -- Jack lost it? How do you mean?”

  “He acted unlike any werewolf I’ve ever known after transition.”

  “The walking thing?”

  “Yeah, but more than that. He was acting…you know, like someone who didn’t know how werewolves really were might act.”

  “Like he’d seen a lot of bad movies?” Amanda asked.

  “Yeah, exactly.” I considered this. “Which makes no sense, because they have turned werewolves on the Prince’s side. All he’d need to do was ask them what their transitions had been like and how to act.”

  “So either he did that, and ignored it, or he didn’t.” Now it was Ken’s turn to stare off into space. “Speaking as a cop, and not a jilted lover, how smart is Jack?”

  “Speaking as myself, who, all things being equal, just did the jilting, smart. He’s a good cop. One of the best, many times the best. Oh, damn. I have to call the Chief. He has no idea, and that means Jack could be doing Gods and Monsters knows what to the Prosaic City P.D.”

  Maurice cleared his throat. “The Count may have been down, but he was hardly out. Your human police chief’s been warned. He was quite angry -- with Mister Yummy, not you, by the way.”

  “Well, that’s something.” Another thought occurred. I was so proud. “Susan.”

  “What?” Monty was apparently asking for everyone.

  “Susan, the day dispatcher. Jack was sleeping with her. And if my family’s history is any indication --”

  “He’s gone off to grab Bride Number Two,” Amanda finished for me. “I don’t want you to go,” she added quickly. “You need to regroup. Maurice and I will take a full squad and see if we can track her down before Jack does.”

  “Call him the Adversary,” Ken said.

  “No.” I put my hand on his arm. “You really are the best guy anyone could be exes with. But, no. Call him Jack. I need to fight Jack, not the Adversary.”

  “You sure?” Ken asked. “Because that seems so…harsh.”

  “But it’s reality. My reality’s always been harsh.” I had to remind myself, Ken was the Undead Ideal, but he was from an era so far removed from mine that sometimes it was like we weren’t even talking the same language. “Don’t worry. I’ll be stronger this way.”

  “Hell hath no fury like a weregirl scorned,” Maurice suggested.

  “Canines don’t lie much and we don’t like those who do. We really hate it when someone close to us has lied, particularly when it’s us they’ve lied to.”

  “As I said.” Maurice rolled his eyes. “So, Amanda and I are off to the races. What are the rest of you going to be doing?”

  “Hunting moles,” Monty said. “Ken, I’d like your help.”

  “He was suspect number two.”

  They both gave me a dirty look. “Anyone else called out as the potential betrayer of the ages?” Monty asked rather more snidely than I felt necessary.

  “Ralph, the Count, and Clyde, for starters. By the time we were done, pretty much any being could have been the main suspect. It’s easy to get paranoid, especially when there’s proof that paranoia is the right way to go. Jack even insinuated that the Gods and Monsters could be in on it.”

  “The Prince’s side would like us to think so, yes.” Monty gently removed Rover from my waist and draped him over his shoulders. “We’ll be in touch. Give Ralph our best…you know, when he wakes up.”

  The four of them gave me the hugs and the standard atta girls, and then I was alone. Well, as alone as it was possible to be in a hospital teeming with personnel I knew. But, I wasn’t with any of them. I was a lone wolf. I wondered how Ralph had stood it all these years.

  It was easier to maneuver through the hospital this way, though. No one really paid me much notice, and I was able to find Ralph’s room in a few minutes. I hated hospitals, but I shoved that aside. I wasn’t here for me, I was here for him.

  He looked pretty pathetic. His fur was matted with blood and he had an inordinate amount of tubes and wires going into his body. Beeping and blinking machines filled up half the room. He was twitching, which I hoped meant he was dreaming and that there was brain activity. I didn’t bother to look at the machines -- I had no clue what any of them did or were trying to tell me, and now wasn’t the time to learn.

  I grabbed his chart as I pulled the one chair in the room over and sat down. My last hospital visit I’d been in a similar position, only sitting on Jack’s lap. How long ago that felt.

  Ralph was as bad as everyone had said. The doctor’s weren’t giving him a rosy recovery outlook. My throat felt tight as the words “all my fault” went across my mind like a repeating electronic banner. I took his paw in my hand.

  “I’m so sorry I didn’t listen to you. You were right, all along -- about Jack, about what we werewolves should be doing, maybe about everything. I’m sorry I never paid any attention until it was almost too late.”

  He didn’t respond. I’d known he wouldn’t, but the disappointment rolled over me anyway. I thought about what Sexy Cindy had said, that she’d love it if a guy like Ralph wanted her. He should want her -- she’d seen him for what he was, a hero.

  But, hero or not, Ralph was a werewolf fanatic, and fanatics didn’t mate outside their species. Meaning he’d spent all this time hoping I’d wake up and smell the kibble.

  Whether he’d wake up, or wake up still even remotely interested in me, was a mystery. I had to ask myself if I could be interested in him. It was hard to say yes or no. I’d called him when I was frightened and he’d come to save me -- had saved me. Just like Black Wolf and his pack had come and saved me.

  I gave up and let the tears come. I’d closed the door tightly behind me, so hopefully no one was going to hear me bawling my head off. I just hoped I could keep the howling to a minimum.

  Not to enough of a minimum, apparently, if the arrival of a nurse I’d seen around but really didn’t know was any indication. She was older, plump and sort of motherly, complete with her hair in a bun and her nurse’s cap on just so. Just looking at her was calming, which is why I figured she looked and dressed this way.

  “Ah,” she said as she came in and shut the door behind her. “You must be our poor brave boy’s next of kin.”

  “Sort of.” I already knew Ralph had no kin, and with no official pack, he was alone. But I was his superior officer, and that had to count for something. “Is he going to make it?”

  She took the chart from me and glanced through it. “Well, it’s hard to say, but he’s a fighter, so I think he has a good chance.” I took a look at her nametag -- Nurse Nancy, P.W., which meant Practicing Witch or Warlock, depending. Good, they made the best medical personnel, and I wanted Ralph to have the best.

  “What about his mind and his physical prowess? Will he be back to normal, do you think?”

  Apparently this was some sort of hospital code, because Nurse Nancy gave me a conspiratorial wink and patted my shoulder. “Oh, I’m sure he’ll be chasing you around the park in no time. Werewolves come out of anesthesia quite frisky, dear, don’t you worry. You’ll have your mate back good as new, if we have anything to say about it.”

  I felt my cheeks get hot. “Uh, not quite what I meant.”

  She giggled. “Oh, don’t be embarrassed. It’s one of the most natural things, for any species, alive or undead. And most spouses are worried about it, even though they don’t want to say so out loud. You’re not asking anything wrong or anything every other being whose loved one was injured doesn’t ask. Will I get my honey back and will he or she be the same honey? It’s an understandable concern.”

  “You know, I have to ask -- why do you think Ralph and I are…mated?”

  She shrugged. “Well, I know I don�
��t really know you two well at all, but you’re a werewolf, too.”

  “Yes.”

  “And, as I understand it, werewolves are attracted to strength and virility.”

  “True.” I had no idea where Nurse Nancy was going with this.

  “Well.” She gave me another conspiratorial wink. “Not to insinuate that we’ve had our way with your boy here, but, ah, well, trust me when I say that he’s an impressive specimen. Quite a big boy, best in show, sort of thing.”

  “I guess. I mean, he’s bigger than me in wolf form, but that’s to be expected.”

  Nurse Nancy coughed. “I didn’t mean just in body structure, dear. You have quite a virile young wolf here, if I’m any judge.”

  It took a while, but what she was euphemistically insinuating finally became clear. My cheeks got hotter. I’d never exactly lifted Ralph’s tail to take a look, but it made sense that the medical staff had. Nice to know Nurse Nancy was impressed.

  She was also still prattling on about Ralph’s attributes. “Quite strong, too. Even unconscious he was still fighting -- it took six of us to have a prayer of holding him down until the drugs took effect.”

  “He’s dedicated, yeah.”

  “Well, understandable. At least if what he was saying was any indication of what happened.”

  “He’d been talking? That’s good, right?”

  “Hopefully, yes. He was saying ‘get away from her’ over and over again.” She cocked her head at me. “You look a little worse for wear. You’re the ‘her’, I imagine?”

  “Yeah.” I was the her. And even unconscious Ralph was trying to protect me. I couldn’t help it, the howling started in earnest.

  “There, there.” Nurse Nancy was patting my head. Normally someone being this wolfy-cutesy would make me want to bite them, but it was definitely her thing, because it had the desired effect. I buried my face in her stomach and sobbed. “It’ll be alright, dear, it’ll be fine. He’s got you to come back for, and he will, I promise.”

  “Are we on sanctified ground?”

  Nurse Nancy pulled away from me and raised my chin with her hand. She looked confused. “Not that I know of, dear. Not desecrated, but only certain areas are sanctified. Do you want an angel or a saint? I don’t know that a blessing will help your young wolf, here, but it certainly couldn’t hurt.”

  “No. He’ll get better from your and the others’ work, I’m sure. I just wanted to check that it was a normal promise.”

  Nurse Nancy shook her head. “As normal as we can be, which is not at all and completely, at the same time.” She patted my shoulder again. “Now, you relax. Visiting hours are almost up, but under the circumstances, I’ll let you stay. However, I can’t bring another bed in here, so if you need to have a lie-down, there’s a waiting area just around the corner, with couches, throw pillows and blankets.”

  With that she trotted out of the room and left me and my guilt alone with Ralph. I held his paw again and leaned my head on the bed. And thought -- about everything but mostly about Jack.

  But it was weird -- my heart hurt, but not like I thought it should. Like Amanda had said, I’d been crazy about Jack, for well over a year. And yet, there was no part of me that wanted him back. The revulsion was too strong -- Jack was part of the Adversary and there would never be a way I’d willingly let him touch me again.

  But even so, I thought I should be feeling more bereft. But I wasn’t. Some of this had to do with Susan the day dispatcher. It had been clear she and Jack were an active item. Even if he hadn’t been a part of the Adversary, I’d want to rip his parts off for the infidelity.

  The sex had been great, but the memory of what he’d tried to do right before Ralph had arrived was a total turn off. Playing was one thing -- but Jack hadn’t been playing. He’d been, as I thought about it, just like I’d read my real fathers had been.

  My whole body shuddered. I’d fallen in love with Jack’s exterior and now that I’d been exposed to the interior I was done, turned off like a light switch. It had never happened before, but if there was ever a time to recover fast from a bad relationship, now was it.

  I considered whether part of my speedy emotional recovery was because Ralph was here and I was finally willing to look at him as an option, should he pull through. Possibly. But why was I open to Ralph now? Just because he’d been incredibly heroic and brave and had saved me from the most horrifying experience of my unlife? Well, those were pretty good reasons to be impressed, as I thought about it.

  Ralph was a dork, yes, but he was a brave, loyal dork. And regardless of what he’d look like as a human -- should I ever find out -- that had to beat handsome, manly, evil hot guy. At least if a weregirl wanted a mate she could count on. Should said potential dorky mate pull through, of course.

  My heart was hurting again, but I realized it was because I was afraid Ralph might dust and then I’d never get the chance to see how short I’d sold him for all these years. I tried not to think about all the times I’d let the exasperation with his loving, loyal interest show in my expression or voice.

  Sadly, my personal electronic scroll ensured all of them played merrily through my mind. I’d been a bitch, and not in the canine sense, and if Ralph woke up and never wanted to speak to me again, he had more than every right.

  But what was I going to do or say if he woke up the same Ralph who I’d known for centuries?

  “You know, if you make it through, I’d probably be open to a date. Maybe even going steady. You know, if you can even look at me after all of this.”

  He didn’t wake up or even twitch. So, the sounds of a loved one’s voice idea either was a crock or I wasn’t in the loved ones category any more. I gave it even odds for either option.

  I heaved a heavy canine sigh and settled in to watch Ralph be unconscious. My love life -- truly, was there a better one in all the planes of existence?

  Chapter 61

  A loud beeping jarred me awake. I hadn’t realized I’d fallen asleep -- I’d been so out I hadn’t dreamed.

  I looked around. The monitors and machines were going crazy. Ralph was still breathing, so I controlled the impulse to do CPR. But I had no idea of what to do.

  I ran for the door just as a passel of medical personnel raced into the room. The door managed to miss slamming into my face, but only because I had great reflexes. We did the “this way, no that way” dance a bit, which would have made me laugh under different circumstances. Right now, though, any time I was moving and the staff were moving with me was time they weren’t getting to Ralph.

  I gave up and leaped over his bed and back to my chair. Sometimes that gets a whistle of admiration or round of applause. Today it got me a nod of relief.

  The doctors and nurses swarmed over Ralph to the point I was shoved into the far corner of the room. Nurse Nancy bustled in shortly after and motioned to me. I went to her reluctantly.

  She took my arm and led me out to the hall. “They need you out of the room, dear.”

  “But, I want to know what’s going on.” It didn’t come out as a whine, but it was a near thing.

  Nurse Nancy shook her head. “Come along.” She led me to the waiting room she’d described. It was rather cozy, all things considered, with a variety of chairs and couches, as well as the pillows and blankets as advertised. “You wait here, dear. We’ll send someone for you once the doctors are through.”

  “Ralph’s going to be okay, right?”

  She gave me a small smile. “I’m sure.”

  “Will someone come and tell me when it’s okay for me to go back and stay with Ralph?”

  “Yes, dear, I’ll make a note on his chart.” She patted my arm then bustled off and I was alone.

  I had no idea what time it was, but I could say for sure that my pseudo-nap hadn’t done me too many favors. I figured I could pace and worry or sleep. I grabbed a pillow and a couple of blankets, made a nest on one of the couches, contemplated what would be the most comfortable in this situation and switch
ed to wolf form, curled up, and went to sleep.

  Well, I tried. Intermittent sleep is better than nothing, and that’s what I was getting. I was alone in the waiting room, but I could hear medical personnel running here and there, doing their jobs. Sadly, Ralph wasn’t the only one in this wing and there was a lot of ruckus for a variety of beings.

  There was another little undeads tour group who came by and though they tried to be quiet, twenty youngsters “whispering” was enough to rouse someone deaf, let alone someone with my hearing. I played dead dog, but it still required waking up and going back to sleep.

  And so it went. If I fell asleep and no one in the hospital managed to wake me, then my wrist-com was going off with updates. Updates I was too fuzzy to do anything with. The exhaustion and heartache had caught fully up to me and I was a basket case. The best I got was that Ken was in charge but wanted me back on the case, however the Count wanted me recuperated, and nothing was happening, but Monty felt it was the calm before the next storm.

  I listened to these updates, grunted or growled, depending, and then flopped back down to sleep.

  Somewhere around dawn Nurse Nancy brought me some food, shared she was going off duty, and reassured me that Ralph was still alive. I was still relegated to the waiting room, however. I scarfed the food and did the flop back onto the paws thing.

  I was on my back, in the first deep sleep I’d managed, paws in the air, when I felt someone watching me. I was pretty sure I’d been snoring -- per Jude and Ken both, I snored up a storm in what everyone who wasn’t canine called the “dead cockroach” sleeping position.

  Police training combined with werewolf senses meant I evaluated the situation in the room quickly, eyes still closed. There was definitely no feeling of danger, but I was also not alone. I cracked an eyelid.

  Upside down, the man standing there looked okay. Tall, long dirty-blond hair, medical scrubs. Wasn’t a doctor I knew, but then again, I did my best not to be here much.

  It was clear he knew I was awake, because he looked amused. I did the flip and roll thing, which flipped me onto the floor. He helped me up and I figured it was time to go to human form, since I’d embarrassed myself enough in wolf form.