Behind the Eight Ball

by M. A. Church

  That was good enough for me. “Then let’s stop worrying. Marshell probably brought one of his hookups here last night. He does that all the time. Come on.”

  I walked down the hall to my bedroom.

  “Maybe. It’s just that scent is familiar,” Heller said as he followed me. “I wish it were stronger because I know I’ve smelled it before.”

  “Stop stressing, babe.” I stopped at my room. “Now that’s really odd. Wonder why they closed my bedroom door?”

  I reached for the handle. Before I could touch the thing, Heller, grabbed me, hissing madly. Wow, I knew he was strong, but I’d never felt his full strength before now. He pushed me across the hall, away from my bedroom door, his constant hissing echoing in my ear.

  He hadn’t hurt me, but I didn’t appreciate the manhandling. “What the fuck, Heller?”

  “That scent I smelled earlier is stronger here. I recognized it now. It’s werewolf.”

  Chills ran over my body. Werewolf? Why was there a werewolf scent in my room? Was it the one from the backyard?

  “Let’s go!” Whispering, I tugged at Heller’s arm. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”

  Instead of leaving like any sane person, my mate plastered his ear against the door. I seriously thought about kicking him in the shins.

  “What are you doing?” I demanded.

  “Listening.”

  Listening. Oh my God, I was going to snatch him bald. He wasn’t listening to me, the one person he should be. I tried to tug him away from the door. If Heller could scent the werewolf, then I was pretty sure it could scent us. “Are you insane?”

  “Would you be quiet? I’m listening to see if there’s anyone in your room.”

  Yup, insane. There was no other explanation. “How about listening to me? We need to get out of here.”

  Heller stepped back, and his posture was more relaxed than it had been. “There’s no one in there. It’s safe.”

  Since I knew he wouldn’t let me enter if there was danger, I opened my bedroom door. And promptly screamed bloody blue murder. My room looked like a tornado hit it. All the drawers had been pulled out of the dresser and upended.

  Strewn around the room were my sweats, underwear, and boxers. Mixed in with that were my sheets and bedspread. My mattress rested half-on, half-off the box spring and had four long grooves in it. Springs and stuffing from the mattress had been thrown about.

  My poor dresser sat at a funny angle, and it too had deep claw grooves. The frames of a few pictures I’d hung on the wall were smashed and on the floor. My headboard had a hole in it where it looked like a fist had hit it and gone straight through the wood.

  The end table next to the bed looked like it had been kicked or thrown across the room; it lay in two pieces. The little cheap desk I owned was nothing more than kindling now, broken to pieces. I glanced at the floor and noticed some of my jeans, a few dress shirts, and a pair of slacks scattered over the floor. Those looked like clothes from my….

  “Motherfucking son of a bitch!”

  I scrambled across the mounds of stuff on the floor to my closet and threw it open. Nothing remained except for the naked hangers. Someone had dumped everything I owned on the floor.

  Then the smell of urine hit me.

  I was going to be sick. “Oh fuck. No, please, no!”

  I grabbed a white dress shirt off the floor and held it up. It kept getting worse. Not only were my clothes damp, they were shredded. Throwing the shirt to the side, I picked up something else, my hands shaking. It too was clawed to pieces.

  “Oh my God, what the fuck is this?” I yelled, throwing the article of clothing aside and grabbing something else.

  My body flushed and sweat popped out on my forehead. Most everything I owned had either been sliced up or pissed on. Or both. I couldn’t wrap my head around this kind of destruction. I swayed on my feet.

  “Hey, hey, easy, Lawson. Why don’t we get out of here? It reeks of werewolf.” Heller wrapped his arms around me and backed me out of the room. “Kitchen. Let’s go to the kitchen.”

  I followed him blindly. I didn’t know what to say or do. I didn’t have much, but what I did have was mine, dammit. Now I had nothing. My stomach roiled and my body trembled. Saliva flooded my mouth and I shoved away from Heller. I barely got my head over the sink before breakfast reappeared.

  Clutching the counter, I groaned as my stomach heaved. “Aw, shit.”

  I heaved again. God, it felt like my stomach was turning itself inside out. As far as I was concerned, there was nothing worse than throwing up. I shuddered when a cool cloth slid over the back of my neck. That felt good.

  The sweet gesture from Heller helped steady me. Taking a deep breath, I straightened up. Since I was pretty sure I was finished throwing up, I turned on the faucet and rinsed the sink. Ugh, that was just disgusting.

  I cupped my hands under the water and washed my mouth out. I washed the cold sweat off my face and then rinsed the cloth out. I held it against my throat. I wanted to go lie down somewhere and pull the covers over my head. Since that wasn’t going to happen, I faced Heller. He pulled me back into his arms and I rested my head on his shoulder.

  “Thank you.” I buried my face in his neck.

  “Wish I could do more. I’m so sorry. Gods, Lawson, I’m so very sorry.”

  So was I. As he held me, the anger that flooded me earlier faded as cold reality butted in. A werewolf had somehow gotten in the house and destroyed my room. Everyone knew werewolves were not a species you wanted to mess with.

  They were aggressive at best, and flat-out insane at worst. What the hell had I done to attract the attention of such a paranormal? The rage that drove the destruction of my personal things was scary.

  “I need to call Janelle, and then Marshell. They need to know what happened.”

  Heller ran his hands up and down my back, the motion steadying me. “Yeah. This is the second time you’ve been targeted. We have to do something because this is getting out of hand. This was more personal. Scaring the crap out of you is one thing. This were just took it up another notch. That worries me.”

  “I just don’t know what I’ve done. This doesn’t make any sense.”

  Heller hugged me one last time then stepped back. “We’ll figure it out.”

  My head was starting to hurt. Great. “Yeah, I guess.”

  “You’re pale. You may be a little shocky. Why don’t you sit down? Do you guys have any sodas here? The sugar would probably do you good.”

  I sank down in one of the kitchen table chairs, my legs shaking. “Um, there are some cans in the pantry.”

  Heller dug around. “Found them. Coke okay?”

  “Sure.”

  Heller fixed it and brought the glass to me. “Here. It may help settle your stomach too. Would you be okay here alone for just a second?”

  “Yeah, why?”

  “I’d like to take a look around. I want to check the other bedrooms and see if they were damaged too.”

  “Okay.” I sat there trying to figure this out while he looked. Things like this didn’t happen to me. I was boring. I didn’t make waves. I minded my business.

  Heller returned and sat down next to me. “Okay, Marshell’s bedroom hasn’t been touched. The were’s scent is in there, but it’s in Janelle’s room too.”

  “So it at least checked out their bedrooms, even if it didn’t do anything.”

  “Looks like. Her room’s empty, though, so I’m assuming she must have moved her stuff out before this.”

  “That really doesn’t narrow down the time frame. She started moving some stuff last night, and again this morning.”

  “Yeah, that doesn’t help much.”

  Silence filled the kitchen. Finally I spoke again. “So just my things were destroyed.”

  “It looks like it. You should know it was just your stuff. There are no holes in the walls, no scratches… nothing. This was all aimed at you. Well, the carpet in there is damp since he pissed all
over your clothes.”

  “Jesus.” I scrubbed my hands over my face then caught what Heller said. “He?”

  “Oh yeah, the werewolf is male.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Do you really want to know?”

  “Yeah… no. Never mind.” I wanted to bang my head on the table. “What’s with the pissing deal?”

  “Wolves do that to mark territory,” Heller said. “It’s a warning to others. I’d definitely say pissing all over your stuff is a warning.”

  “A warning of what, though? That’s what I don’t get.”

  “If we knew that, then we’d know the why for all this.” Heller reached over and took my free hand. “Make your calls, babe. Your Vetalas need to know about this so they can take precautions. I need to let my Alpha know too.”

  “Lovely. I get to hear them yell all over again.” Giving up, I lowered my head to the table.

  “A sentiment I well understand. If I thought it would do any good, I’d yell too.”

  Sighing, I sat up and fished my cell out of my jeans.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Heller

  FUCK YELLING. What I’d really like to do was gut the cowardly bastard. Lawson appeared to be handling it well, but his scent belied that. If those were my clothes, Lawson would’ve probably had to peel me off the ceiling.

  The sheer amount of destruction was bad enough, but the evilness of the act worried me. I’d told Lawson this was a warning, and I wasn’t kidding. I had the really bad feeling the next thing this werewolf intended to claw up was my mate. To hell with that. The only imitation of a scratching post Lawson was going to be doing was for me.

  I’d stepped out of the kitchen to give Lawson some privacy while he called his friends. I checked the front door. As best I could tell, the lock was intact. So the wolf hadn’t broken in. When Lawson finished speaking with Janelle and Marshell, I’d check the back door, and the door to the garage too. Dammit, that wolf had to get in here some way.

  Lawson’s voice drifted to me from the kitchen. He must’ve been talking to Marshell, from the aggravation I heard. Now that I knew Marshell wasn’t trying to come between Lawson and me, I could enjoy how Marshell picked on Lawson.

  I laughed out loud when Lawson snapped right back at Marshell. I liked that my mate gave as good as he got. I continued wandering around the living area, vaguely listening to Lawson’s end of the conversation. His tone of voice changed now. He must he speaking to Janelle.

  I switched on the TV to see what the weather was doing. It was getting dark, but that was partly due to it being overcast. Instead of moving Lawson’s things to my house, we’d be moving them to the street. I’d bet there wasn’t anything worth saving. Hope we weren’t doing that in the rain. My hair would be a frizzy mess.

  I was standing by the fireplace when Lawson joined me.

  “Well, how did it go?” I asked.

  “Marshell ranted and raved, as usual. He said he’d be over after work. Janelle, on the other hand, was much calmer, with her creative threats on how she planned to kill the wolf. You know.” Lawson shrugged. “Business as usual with them. Oh, she also said she was on her way back over. She has some cleaning up to do from moving. She said she’ll give us a hand with my mess.”

  “Any and all help is appreciated. So what do you want to do with the furniture?”

  Lawson ran his hands through his hair. “It’s garbage now. I guess haul it to the street and let the city take it. Might as well bag up all my clothes too. God, Heller, all I have left are the clothes on my back.”

  I pulled him into my arms. “I’d say I’m sorry again, but it doesn’t seem like enough. We’re pretty much the same size. As it’s been pointed out, I do have enough clothes for two people, so you’ll have something to wear until we can get to a department store.”

  Lawson rested his head on my shoulder. “I fucking hate this, just hate this. A lot of my stuff I’d left at home when I first moved to New York was thrown out by my parents when they found out I was dating a black man. Now it’s happened again. I’m back to having nothing.”

  My heart broke at the quiver in his voice. Hugging him tightly, I searched for something to say, and I had nothing. There was no way to pretty this up or make it better. He was right. He hadn’t had much to begin with, and now he had nothing. I hugged him, and a sound somewhere between a meow and a purr escaped me. I hoped it would help calm him.

  Lawson snuggled closer and sighed. “What’s that sound?”

  I stopped so I could answer him. “It’s me. It’s called trilling. Werecats do it as a way to offer comfort.”

  Lawson lifted his head off my shoulder and looked at me. “Oh, I like the trilling, don’t mistake me, but I was actually talking about…. Don’t you hear that?” Lawson stepped back, frowning, as he glanced down the hallway that led to the back of the house. “It almost sounds like someone knocking.”

  Now that he mentioned it, I did hear something. It was like a steady pounding, not so much knocking. I couldn’t figure out what the hell it was. “I… the TV, maybe?”

  “I don’t think so. There’s a commercial about cat food playing. I don’t think—”

  A crash sounded down the hall.

  “What the fuck was that?” Lawson demanded.

  “Nothing good.”

  It sounded like half the house had fallen down. If I wasn’t mistaken, I heard glass break too. The stench of werewolf and a low, menacing growl drifted down the darkened hallway.

  “Oh, fucking hell.” I grabbed Lawson and shoved him behind me.

  “Shit. I know that sound,” Lawson whispered. “Heard it that night by the garbage cans.”

  From the darkened hall, yellow eyes stared at us. I had seconds to figure out what to do. If I planned to shift, I needed to do so now, but I wasn’t sure that was the best thing. In my cat form, I’d be quicker, but also smaller. Way smaller.

  The wolf was in his shifted form; the bright yellow eyes told me that. The average height of a gray wolf, at the shoulder, was twenty-six to thirty-two inches. Werewolves ended up over forty inches. In other words about the size of a really big Great Dane. Alphas were even bigger. My werecat was eighteen to twenty inches at the shoulder.

  I opted to stay in human form but let my fangs drop and my claws come out. The height and weight of this form was my best bet, even if my cat yowled madly for me to shift. If the were got those powerful jaws around my neck, it wouldn’t matter what form I was in—I’d be dead.

  “I have my knife, so I’m not totally defenseless,” Lawson said from behind me.

  What I wouldn’t give for that knife to be a gun. I’d seen what a gun could do. “It’s better than nothing. If… if for some reason I can’t…. Aim for the eyes or heart if it gets past me.” The only way that was happening was if I were dead.

  My hair stood up at the clicking of nails on hardwood floors. The werewolf crept down the hall, growling the entire way. It finally left the darkness and stepped into the living area. My first impression was of a dull-brown coat and long lanky legs. It was male. I could tell by the musky scent. The snarls didn’t end as it stalked closer to us.

  “I won’t let you hurt my mate,” I hissed, sounding more like a cat than a human. My arms hung loosely at my sides, ready to slash into skin or grab on to a body if the wolf sprang at me. “Why are you doing this? What do you think Lawson’s done to you? Shift and tell us what the fuck is going on! This isn’t the way we handle problems, you know that.”

  The wolf crouched, growling louder now. So much for talking. He was going to attack.

  “Get ready,” I whispered back to Lawson. “Get my keys out of my front pocket. When he lunges at me, run. Get to my truck and get the hell out of here. Go to my Alpha’s house and get help.”

  “Are you insane?” Lawson slapped me on the back. “I’m not leaving you!”

  “Don’t argue with me.” Since he wouldn’t take my keys, I yanked them out of my pocket and shoved them behind m
e.

  “Yeah, and fuck that too.”

  But he took the keys, and that was all that mattered to me. I wished… I wished I’d had more time with him. We barely had a chance to get to know each other. Our mating was so new, maybe Lawson would survive if I….

  The werewolf jumped at us.

  “Run!” I barely got the word out before a huge, furry body slammed into me.

  Damn thing is heavy. Then I didn’t have time to think thanks to teeth snapping at my throat. I grabbed the wolf’s torso and locked my arms in front of me. I had to keep him away from my body.

  I sank my claws into his sides, and I flinched at the howl the other shifter let loose. We staggered and slammed into a nearby wall. Stars flashed before my eyes after the hit, and sheetrock gave under our weight. I had no idea where Lawson was, but I hoped he’d gotten out.

  Trying to hold on to this animal was like trying to hold on to a furry hurricane. Claws and teeth were everywhere. Pain exploded in my gut and along my sides as the wolf thrashed in my grip. My muscles shook from holding its weight away from me.

  Blood seeped down to my hips and stomach as I fought to keep ahold of the damn thing. I stumbled, one of my knees giving out as it smashed into something hard. Coffee table, maybe? Down we went. I still had a death grip on the son of a bitch, but on my back was the last place I wanted to be.

  It now had the advantage. I looked into the shifter’s furious yellow eyes. Saliva-coated teeth snapped at my face. My muscles shook; I had to do something and fast to get the upper hand. My claws were still embedded in its flesh, so I yanked my hands straight up his side.

  It was one of the most disgusting feelings I’d ever felt as muscle and tissue tore under the strength of my claws. My hands were drenched in blood. It dripped on me along with the blood from the shifter above me. The wolf’s fangs drew closer.

  Being in human form was working against me now. I wasn’t sure shifting was the best thing to do, but I needed out from under the wolf before it ripped my throat out. I prepared to shift. The wolf howled again, jerking madly above me, snarling and snapping.