“It’s all right now,” he said calmly, as if the wolf actually did possess the ability to understand what he was talking about.
Tess sucked in a breath. The stern beauty of Jonas’s face, combined with the heady mixture of the danger she had faced and the silver particles swimming in her bloodstream, served to twist her emotions into new knotted threads. Instead of hating this Lycan, the look on his face made Tess want to jump his bones.
She had an urge to drop the bow, forget about the Were that had tried to kill her and have Jonas all to herself. Get down and dirty. Get this crazy attraction over with.
Shaking her head didn’t rid her of those thoughts. Watching Jonas’s muscles ripple and dance made her want him all the more.
“Crazy,” she muttered.
The smile Jonas offered her was a sad one. In order to preserve the thinnest thread of her dignity and enhance her self-restraint, Tess had to believe he hadn’t read those last thoughts. “Because if you have, it will set the clock back to the beginning of time, before there were either of our species,” she silently sent to him.
He had the graciousness to pretend he hadn’t heard that last remark. Graciousness. In a werewolf. Where was there any mention of that in the damn rule book? Where was it written that werewolves could tap into private thoughts and mess with a person’s equilibrium?
That kind of connection was unfair and unruly. She should have hated Jonas. Instead...
Tess felt her face grow warmer. Her hands started to shake as she purposefully avoided the blue gaze that was searching her face. Have to avoid you, wolf. Must.
She wasn’t sure that thought had been meant for her alone, or if she had openly shared it.
Jonas might be supposing that his charisma would be his ticket to her mattress and that he might singlehandedly change the order of the hidden world they lived in. Tess knew better. She could picture what the world would be like if the goals of Weres and those who hunted them collided.
The white wolf moved, forcing Tess’s attention there. It had crouched down with its unusually light eyes trained on the remaining rogue.
From beside her, Jonas spoke again, addressing his remarks to the wolf. “Gwen. No.”
He tugged the wounded Were into taking a shaky first step. To Tess, he said, “There’s nothing I can do to remove the silver from this guy’s body, so it’s unlikely he will last the night. Was there a large amount of silver on that arrow?”
“Enough to take down two of these guys,” Tess said.
He called the blood-drenched white wolf to him with a pat on his thigh. Tess noticed that his jeans were torn and wondered if the white wolf had done that, too, with sharp teeth or claws.
As if nothing untoward had happened here, the white wolf crept toward Jonas. Just before the animal reached him, it veered toward Tess.
Tess’s hand moved to the knife on her belt. She held her breath as the white wolf approached. But the wolf that had just savaged a rogue made no angry growling sounds and didn’t bare its teeth.
Steadying herself, Tess withheld a curse as the wolf brushed its bloody face against her right hand, leaving a bright red stripe on her knuckles. In what seemed to Tess like the oddest kind of finale to tonight’s surreal scene, she got the distinct impression that this wolf was sending her a message.
“I will take care of this tomorrow,” Jonas announced. “There’s no more danger out here tonight. Go home, Tess.”
When he turned, the white wolf gave Tess a backward glance before following Jonas, keeping close to the wounded rogue’s dragging heels. Tess watched them go, equally hating and lamenting each step Jonas took that led him away from her.
The bad guys were gone. Odds tonight had been four to one, and she’d been left standing.
Letting out breath, Tess glanced down at the red stripe on her hand trying to understand what had just transpired, and if she was nuts for believing that the bloodstained white wolf, like its master, had given her a peace offering.
And that, Tess thought, had to be the craziest notion of all.
* * *
Jonas spent a couple of hours burying the Were he had dragged toward home. He’d have to do the same for the one Gwen had killed near the rocks. Sharp canines had taken care of one. A silver-tipped arrow had sealed the fate of the other. But for now, the strange and unlikely triangle of him, Gwen and Tess had come through this last attack unscathed.
It took him another hour to get the blood out of Gwen’s white coat. With her skin sore from all the scrubbing, his sister had shifted back to her more familiar shape and had wrapped herself in a soft blanket by the fire he had built up for her.
He wanted to hug her, whisper assurances to Gwen that it would be all right, when she didn’t seem to acknowledge that kind of closeness.
As usual, Gwen hadn’t said a word. Her demeanor was calm, as if what had happened by the rocks was of no real consequence.
It was so damn hard for him to tell what his sister was thinking. No lines of telepathic communication worked with her for reasons Jonas regularly failed to understand. However, those lines were wide open with Tess.
Jonas kept himself from twitching the thread uniting him and the hunter. Filthy from digging, he was in need of a shower. Hot water would rinse away his desire to reach out to Tess. A long shower would occupy his time for several minutes.
“You okay?” he asked Gwen.
His sister was staring at the fire, and that was all right with him. He hoped that her wayward energy had been used up tonight and that they’d both get some rest.
“My turn then,” Jonas declared, heading for the bathroom after making sure the front door was bolted and the windows were closed and secure.
He stripped slowly, careful not to drop his dirty jeans on the floor. One look in the mirror told him that the silver Tess had passed to him by way of the meeting of their lips hadn’t completely gone away.
He felt sorry for the poor sucker who had been on the receiving end of Tess’s arrow, but that was over now and they had to move on. Those guys had been bad news.
Hot water felt good on his neck and shoulders. Raising his face to inhale the steam, Jonas chastised himself for imagining what it would be like to have Tess beside him, and all the things he’d do if she were there.
He’d start with a slick glide of hands over her wet golden hair. He would touch her face, her neck and place a kiss beneath one ear before moving on a downward trajectory to her collarbone and the soft space between her breasts.
He imaged what her breasts would look like. And her hips. He imagined how the curve of her spine would feel if he ran a finger over each bone. He imagined having access to all that smooth, pale skin that would be his for the taking.
The vision of Tess’s lush mouth opening beneath the pressure of his lips made him groan.
Stop! he commanded, aroused and aching for the reality of those dreams. He wasn’t a fool. Her next arrow might have his name on it. And if that were to happen, who would look after Gwen? Who would be left to see to his sister’s needs?
He missed Miami and his job on the police force. He missed his packmates. But going home was not an option, nor was spending time with Tess Owens on a bed or in a shower. He had to get that last part through his thick skull. His objective was to make sure his sister lived long enough to finally and fully heal from the damage that had been done to her, so that Gwen could eventually live a relatively normal Lycan life.
How long it would take for Death to look for her here was the question they faced. How he was going to rein Gwen in until that happened was another.
Though the water was hot, the shower tiles were cool. Tired of going over all the problems they faced, Jonas rested both hands on the wall, surrendering to the almost mystical allure of the steam...until he had to look up, startled by the newest sensation of hearing a voice inside his head.
“This doesn’t mean we’re on the same team, wolf. Merely that tonight, we were on the same page.”
His smile was automatic. Tess had reached out.
“I want to make sure that you won’t return, won’t come looking for me,” she sent to him.
“Not tonight,” Jonas sent back. “You can relax.”
“I don’t owe you anything.”
“I don’t expect any thanks.”
There were a few beats of silence before Tess spoke again.
“You gave your wolf pet a name.”
Jonas thought back. Had he done that? Said Gwen’s name in Tess’s presence? If so, he had slipped up mightily.
“Doesn’t everyone?” he returned. “Some people even name their cars.”
“That wolf is lethal.”
“Only to those who need to be reminded of the rules.”
“Rules?” Tess echoed.
“You suppose we don’t have them?”
“The same rules governing the bastards we met up with tonight?” Tess’s skepticism danced along the wires of their connection like little electrical jolts.
“I don’t suppose they had been Weres long enough to acknowledge the rules. So it ended the only way it could have,” Jonas said.
He waited it out another brief lull in the conversation.
“I didn’t need help,” Tess said.
Jonas turned off the water and reached for a towel, not wanting to miss a single syllable of what Tess was saying. After wrapping himself up, he offered consolation. “I know that.”
“Is that wolf wild?” she asked. “Your pet?”
“Sometimes, yes.”
“Why didn’t she attack me?”
“She?” Jonas echoed, annoyed with himself all over again.
“Gwen.”
Jonas leaned against the sink.
“It’s a pretty name for an animal who chews on living things. The point is...”
Jonas finished the sentence for her. “You have an arrow with her name on it?”
“If that wolf comes anywhere near me again, she will taste the magic of what an arrow can do.”
“That wolf helped you out there tonight.”
“Or am I just lucky she found a monster to munch on first?”
Jonas said, “She is my responsibility.”
“We are talking about the wolf?” Tess sent back.
“I like you, wolf hunter. But don’t take that confession too far. Liking you only covers so much territory.”
“You’re touchy about your pet.”
“You have no idea.”
Another minute of silence passed before she said, “Good night, wolf.”
And as if Tess had slammed down a phone receiver, the connection abruptly ended.
Jonas looked to the bathroom door, listening for any evidence that his sister might have picked up on that conversation. After all, he knew so little about anything having to do with his sister.
The fact that Tess knew Gwen’s name was troubling. Seeing how Gwen had taken to the hunter bothered him more. If Gwen went back to the Owens house, he had no real inkling of what Tess might do. Would she shoot something so beautiful?
Another touch came—not so light this time, and in the tone of a warning.
“Hell, I think it’s back,” Tess said.
Jonas thought she whispered when she added, “And I’m guessing whatever this dark thing is might have something to do with you.”
Before those words had been fully spoken, and although they explained nothing really, Jonas found himself heading for the door.
Chapter 17
Tess closed down communication with Jonas and turned in a slow circle near her front gate, sending her senses outward.
The feeling had returned of having company she couldn’t fully sense or see.
Nerves fired up beneath the surface of her skin. Her right cheek twitched. Something was out there, all right.
Behind her, the cabin felt as dark and as empty as she did. Loneliness was one thing. This new feeling of emptiness was different. Jonas had warmed the place up that afternoon and had shown off his fighting skills tonight, but he wasn’t anywhere near here at the moment. The warmth of his presence was missing.
She was on her own with whatever was heading her way.
“For the record, I know you’re there,” she called out, continuing her search of the yard. “There’s no need to hide.”
A reply would have been a welcome surprise. Tess tried again.
“I’ve just come from a fight and don’t have a tired bone in my body. In fact, if trouble is what you want, I’m ready.”
Nothing.
Damn it.
The night had gone misty, with storm clouds rolling in to partially block the moon. It had to be late. Ten o’clock maybe. The mist blowing in seemed unnaturally cold. Tess shivered, waited, watched, with her hands clenched.
The night’s temperature dropped by noticeable degrees as the mist fully blotted out the moon. Visibility beyond her fence was hampered by the dark curtain that had fallen over the landscape. As Tess stood rooted in place by the gate, taking in one icy breath after another, fear began to settle in.
The urge to call Jonas came and went. What good would it do when he wasn’t close by? Besides, she had no right to go back on her vow of needing no one.
The uncanny mist entered the yard, flowing like a low-lying fog. Tess tried desperately to place what might be driving it. Her fear was close to reaching its zenith. She swayed on her feet, seeing nothing, finding no one, not even the outline of a shape in the mist that was getting closer by the second.
Tess sensed that something hid within the darkness, and she fought the instinct to run. After a painfully icy breath, she said, “What do you want?”
In a move so creepy that Tess almost crossed herself, the darkness drew upward and began to coagulate with a sickening flurry of motion. A face appeared that was unlike any face Tess had ever seen. Black veil. Black eyes. No mouth. There were no real features at all; just a filmy outline that came so close to her, Tess leaned back.
Were there words? Had it spoken when there was no mouth to speak with? In her mind, the word wolf appeared as if this thing had put it there.
When the image of what this dark apparition sought flashed through Tess’s mind, it was an image she didn’t recognize. In her mind was the wavering image of a dark-haired young girl.
Tess’s heart rioted against the intrusion, thundering loudly. And yet her relief was instantaneous. This thing wasn’t after Jonas, so why was it here? If it wasn’t the bad thing Jonas had spoken about vaguely, and the thing he was expecting, the reason he had come to South Dakota, what else could this misty freak be?
It was too much of a coincidence.
The dark, featureless face was now level with hers and only inches away. Hell, it was trying to read her. She felt it probe her mind. If it had been Jonas this thing was after, it could have smelled him here and on her. Given its power to project an image directly to her mind, perhaps it had the ability to retrieve images from hers. In that case, the tiniest slip on her part might send this thing in Jonas’s direction—even if the Lycan wasn’t on its current to-do list.
“Enough!” she said adamantly, frightened enough to be near to collapse. “Abominations aren’t allowed in this place and it’s my job to make sure you know that.”
Her next breath hurt like hell. Ice filled her mouth, her throat, her chest. Swallowing was painful. Her breathing had slowed. Unconsciousness hovered like a weakened spark, but she had to keep standing.
“Wolf slayer,” Tess whispered with the last full breath she could manage, repeating the name the rogue Weres had called her tonight as her vision began to tunnel and awareness started to drift.
No. That wasn’t right. She wasn
’t drifting. The dark mist was. The face that wasn’t a real face had backed away, taking the ice shards with it. Darkness began to recede. Wisps of that filmy black mass separated into ribbons that curled and tangled with the brush as the whole thing, rippling like disturbed waves of water, disappeared beyond the trees.
What the hell?
That question was internal, and the echo went on and on. Fear still gripped her. Sorrow was there as well...for the young girl this spooky thing had been after. Whoever she was.
Maybe Jonas knew?
The dark mist had flowed toward the fields leading to Jonas’s cabin again tonight, and she had to warn him.
Could he be hiding a young girl at the cabin?
If so, the black abomination might be calling there next.
Jonas had to be prepared because he had been expecting trouble, even if this wasn’t it. That thing she had seen wasn’t after him, though. It wanted a girl.
That’s what Tess told herself anyway as her feet, no longer so numb, started to move.
* * *
Jonas felt Tess’s fear as if it were his own, and it deepened his concern for her. His ears rang with the shout she had sent to him through open channels. Chills on the back of his neck signaled the kind of warning he couldn’t afford to ignore.
Tess was trying not to think about him, and by trying so hard, her thoughts came through like waves of static.
What are you afraid of, Tess?
At the window in a flash, he was careful not to let Gwen in on what he was sensing.
Inside his chest, Tess’s heartbeats now thundered. She was frightened. Breathless. And she was running.
Tess was coming here.
The clock on the mantel confirmed that he and Gwen had been inside this cabin for less than half an hour. He had left Tess almost an hour before that. If more Weres had shown up in that time, Tess wouldn’t have been afraid. After the skirmish with the last two, she would have done her job whether conflicted or not.
“Tess?” He let her name slip out.
Wolf Slayer Page 12
