The Pull

by Amber Lynn

  Chapter Four

  My wishes for finding peace at lunch continued to be hampered when Abbie took her chicken club sandwich and headed straight for Jack and his friend. If I had the power to push thoughts at a person, I would’ve reminded her about her werewolves stink comment.

  Not surprisingly, she sat next to Jack’s friend, so I was forced to sit next to the wolf I was still trying to figure out. As far as the werewolves stink comment, Abbie was wrong. Jack smelled like earth, a scent I greatly enjoy.

  “So, without saying too much, what’s his deal?” Jack asked.

  I thought it was a little rude not to introduce his friend. Both Abbie and the other man seemed fine just watching how the conversation panned out, but I didn’t like the immediate direction of things, so I ignored it.

  “Hi, I’m Kennedy.” I reached across the table to extend my hand.

  “Harry. It’s nice to meet you in person. Jack and Nikki have told me a lot about you.”

  “Nikki, huh. I can’t wait to meet that sister of yours, Jack. Is Harry a part of the family you mentioned being at the thing tomorrow?”

  “Harry’s my crime-fighting partner, but not technically family. I think you’ll have enough to deal with when seven of us show up at your house tomorrow, so Harry probably won’t be there.”

  “But I’m sure you’ll give him a full report. How long have you two been on the force?”

  I’d managed to eat about half of my sandwich. I was never very good at keeping my sandwiches in one piece, and Jack decided if any veggies fell on my plate, they were up for grabs. So when he answered my question, he was chomping on a green pepper he’d stolen from me.

  “I’ve been on a force for about eight years. Obviously not all of those years were here. I took a year off a few years ago to help my sister with some things, but I found I got bored not rescuing kittens from trees, so I found a gig here in town.”

  “I’m sure you rescue tons of kittens. What’s your story, Harry?”

  Abbie had finished her sandwich, making her ready to join the conversation. I didn’t see Harry preparing any moves to eat the few strips of lettuce that had fallen on her plate. Evidently he wasn’t as rude as Jack.

  “Not much of a story to tell. I try my hardest to keep Jack out of trouble. I’m sure you’ve already figured out that isn’t an easy task.”

  Harry didn’t do much more than shrug his shoulders as he spoke. I didn’t get the sense he was an expressive person, and if he hung out with Jack most of the time, he probably didn’t get many opportunities to speak.

  “Did you really decide to eat here without any prodding from your buddy?”

  I smacked Jack’s hand away as he tried to take more of my food, while I turned to glare at him. Just because I was having a conversation with someone else didn’t mean my attention was averted from guarding my food.

  “There’s a three second rule when it comes to sandwich toppings.”

  “That’s only in your family, Jack,” Harry pointed out. “And technically, yes, I did ask to stop in here to get some food. It’s been a busy morning keeping an eye on things and I wanted to get something while the subject we’re following was occupied.”

  “What exactly are you planning to do about that subject? I was hesitant to let Kennedy around you guys, but he’s a whole other story. I’m not sure how he did it, but I know he’s the one who attacked last night.”

  “If you can’t tell, Abbie thinks she’s my mother for some reason. She’s not, and I can protect myself just fine. It wasn’t like I was making grand plans to run away with anyone.”

  “No, but if he’s like most males, he was making plans for you. I’d rather see you run off and have overly hairy children than get the life sucked out of you by the monster. Kennedy has an issue not noticing how guys look at her. We argued for a good five minutes about the fact that you were undressing her with your eyes this morning.”

  Abbie gave Jack a look that dared him to deny it. She hadn’t specifically used that wording while we argued, and I about choked on the last bite of my sandwich hearing her say it.

  “Well that’s horrible news, because Jack’s all about making sure everyone knows how pretty he is. I don’t know that you two are as compatible as you think if she’s modest. You’ll probably drive her insane with all the product you have to use to perfect your hair each morning.”

  Jack reached over and gave Harry a quick punch to his shoulder. The guys both seemed to be all smiles, while I was trying to figure out how I’d gotten stuck with a table of lunatics. It was an interesting conversation, but they were more easygoing than I thought they should have been.

  “That’s a lie. I only tease about that stuff with close friends, and I don’t broadcast that I think I’m irresistible. The fact that I am is something I can’t help, so you can’t blame me if my looks alone make people think I’m conceited.”

  “Yeah, so I think I’m going to get back to work. Abbie, I think it’d be a good idea for you to stick around and try to figure out the secrets Jack’s been hiding from me, specifically more about his sister and how much they really know about me.”

  A hand closed on my thigh under the table, catching me completely off guard. A hushed whisper of a shush commanded me to be quiet as Jack leaned in to me.

  “He isn’t aware of who and what we are, just like you couldn’t sense me, neither can he. He did see us together last night, and apparently that upset him a little. I expect after you leave, I’ll be forced to deal with his wrath, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to draw him away from you.”

  “Can’t he hear everything we’ve said? I’m pretty sure he got the clue of what you were by that. Abbie spelled out pretty clearly that if I ran off with you we’d have little hairy children.”

  I thought about freezing the room for the conversation, but we were talking quietly enough that Abbie and Harry wouldn’t have heard us from across the table if they didn’t have a little better than normal hearing.

  “I think you already know where I stand with hairy children, but that was this morning’s conversation. Back to the issue at hand, he can’t hear us. If it wasn’t for the fact that he’s been watching us, he wouldn’t have even known I was in here. Please be careful around him. You didn’t immediately fall for his charms, so I’m sure he’s going to try to turn up the volume.”

  I didn’t want Abbie to question what had already been said about children, so I was quick to focus on everything else Jack had said.

  “Can you give me the details of the deaths you claimed he caused? Not that I don’t trust you, but I don’t trust you, and I’m not sure that’s some odd excuse to keep me from making other plans tomorrow.”

  “Why bother saying the first part of your trust statement? Isn’t it silly to repeat yourself like that?”

  “You hate answering questions, don’t you?”

  With as close as we were, there was no reason for his hand to linger on my thigh, so I tried to sneak my hand under the table and remove it without making a big deal. I immediately regretted my decision when an electric shock made its way up my arm.

  “About as much as you hate them. I believe I asked you a question when you sat down, and you immediately ignored it.”

  He quickly moved his hand so he could hold on to mine. I couldn’t win. The shocking settled down, but the heat from his hand seemed to penetrate into my blood.

  “Are you really a wolf?”

  I hadn’t watched him change, and only had the general feel of him to go by. Something just didn’t add up for him to actually be a wolf.

  “I’ll show you later. As for your question about details, I’m going to have to discuss those later too. This isn’t the best place to talk about that kind of thing, and you mentioned you need to get back to work.”

  “I do, but it’s hard when my life seems to have gone insane since you walked into it, and it hasn’t even been a day. I think I’m going to need a vacation after the reading is over.”

  �
�You’re going to hate me for this, I can tell, but just go with it for a second.”

  He spoke softer as he turned his face, which was close enough to mine that I turned to face him as he moved. My brain was clearly not functioning on all cylinders, because I didn’t figure out what he was doing until it was too late.

  His lips collided with mine, and immediately every thought I had flew out of my head. It’d been a few years since I’d allowed anyone to get that close to me, not that I’d allowed anything with Jack.

  His lips were surprisingly soft against mine. I hadn’t really thought about what they’d feel like, but supple and moist weren’t the first things to come to mind. As hard as the rest of him appeared, it made sense that his lips would follow suit.

  I didn’t get a chance to see if the hint of peppermint I sensed was coming from inside his mouth or if it was a touch of lip balm he’d put on at some point. As quickly as the kiss began, he pulled away.

  His green eyes lined up with my slightly darker ones and we stared at each other. My mind told my hand to smack him, but one limb hung frozen at my side with the other one still firmly held in his hand.

  “I’ll apologize fully for that later, but I better deal with the riot I just purposefully incited. What time do you get off work? I’ll call you. Maybe we can get some dinner or something and talk a little more before tomorrow.”

  “She gets off at six, and I think you better head out the back door. Traffic didn’t keep him on the other side of the street very long.”

  Abbie’s words registered, but my body continued to find issues functioning. All I saw was Jack’s eyes, and they seemed to want to stay connected with mine.

  “Great. To save everyone from seeing how scary I get when I fight, I’m going to have to go, but we have a few things we’ll be talking about later.”

  The sound of a door flying open and the bells connected to it finally brought my attention to something other than Jack. The Viking stood there with death in his eyes. I’d always thought that was an odd saying, but looking at him I understood exactly what it meant.

  Jack bounded up and over the table, headed straight for a hallway that I knew led back to a bathroom and the rear exit. Harry smiled at me quickly, before he followed his partner.

  The Viking didn’t say a word as he threw a table to the side and followed them. The poor people at the table had stood and moved away as soon as they’d seen the irate customer, making them a little smarter than I gave most people credit for.

  The clock prominently across the deli from me claimed we’d only been in there for thirty minutes. That didn’t seem possible, and if the second hand hadn’t been moving before my eyes, I would’ve thought I’d left it frozen when I stopped everything else from moving.

  “I think you neglected to tell me a few things about your friend.”

  No one else in the deli moved or even took a breath, and Abbie was making jokes. I often wondered why I put up with her for a best friend.

  I felt the strong energy levels the men gave off getting farther away. As fast as they seemed to fade, I assumed there was some traveling going on that exceeded the normal limits for humans. It wasn’t a smart move, but as long as everyone was out of my hair, and away from people who’d get hurt, I wouldn’t complain.

  “Since I know nothing about him, it’s kind of hard for me to share a lot of details. Plus, between you telling me he stunk and I shouldn’t trust a single thing he says, it was kind of hard for me to say anything specific about him.”

  “Clearly I was too far away to do a proper inspection. Have you ever met one of them before? I always got the impression they were different, but he seemed pretty normal.”

  I ignored her and watched as the toppled table was righted and order quickly found its way back into the deli. That seemed like a good time for me to leave, before I could bring disorder back without even trying.

  “Come on, walk me back to work.”

  I didn’t give her a chance to find a reason to stick around. I was up and to the door quicker than she could open her mouth.

  “Don’t you think you should take the rest of the day off after that? If he’s really what Jack claims, and he’s as interested as he seems in you, you should probably lock yourself up somewhere safe.”

  “Until Jack pulled that stunt, he didn’t seem hell-bent on burning things to the ground. Why are you dressed up?”

  I’d wanted an answer for that question since I noticed her all dolled up, but sneaking it into the conversation had been difficult. Crossing the street with a group of people was a perfect time for me to drive the topic to something a little more mundane.

  “That’s not as easy to answer as I imagine you thought it’d be. Let’s just say I had a feeling love was in the air, but apparently that’s only the case for you. Are you still going to deny he wants to take a bite out of you?”

  “He’s a cop on a case, Abbie. He’s after a guy and he saw an opportunity to get close to his target.”

  We stopped in front of the library, off to the left where there wasn’t a chance the people coming and going would listen in on their way to get books. Traffic in and out was highest during lunch and right after people got off work, so when I wasn’t meeting Abbie for lunch, I usually sat out in the small courtyard leading up to the library to people watch.

  I’d seen thousands of people during my time on Earth, but I never tired of watching daily interactions between the billions of others trying to figure out why they were put on the planet. I enjoyed watching children the most, as long as they were on the outside of the building and weren’t trying to get my attention.

  Sometimes I thought I caught just a glimpse in their eyes that made me think they understood everything, and at some point the adults of the world had forgotten that knowledge. It was silly, but with how crazy the world was, I liked to be silly from time to time.

  “You keep telling yourself that’s why he locked lips with you. You’re lucky there weren’t others like us or him in that room. What was up with the magic spike a minute before the grand event? Were you playing footsie?”

  “Of course not. Can this conversation magically be over?”

  “No, it can’t. You haven’t had a boyfriend since I’ve known you. I think it’s going to take some getting used to.”

  “He’s not ever going to be my boyfriend. I’m starting to think the only reason he actually called me was because he’d been following the Viking guy and noticed him stalking me. He probably thought the whole reading thing would be a good cover to get closer to his target. More than likely, he’s going to lose my number as soon as he gets him.”

  Abbie gave me a doubtful look. My heart wanted my words to be a lie too. I didn’t know what it was about Jack, but I felt a pull connecting me to him. I’d never felt that with anyone else.

  “You know less about him than I do, so you can’t give me that look. I know next to nothing about wolves, but I know they stick to wolves. There’s no cute little human girlfriend they play around with either. Didn’t you or Meredith one time mention that?”

  I knew I’d heard about wolves’ desire to keep their bloodlines pure from someone. It’d been something in passing, and I couldn’t recall why it’d even come up, but it stuck with me.

  “Yes, it was Meredith, but she’s always been a little flighty, so who knows where she got the information. Anyway, last I checked, we aren’t talking about a cute little human. We’re talking about you, and we both know you’re anything but cute.”

  “Well, at least we can agree on one thing. I really do need to get back in there, but with everything that’s gone on, I’m a little worried about you wandering around the streets. You didn’t exactly hit it off with the Viking.”

  I wasn’t sure about the incubus claims. I hadn’t really thought about them, mainly because I didn’t believe they were true. I knew I was real, and it seemed werewolves were, but demons that went around stealing souls by having sex with people were a little unrealistic.
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  “That kiss must have really been something if you’ve already forgotten that I was hanging around the library with you. I don’t care if Jack’s playing on the other side of town with him right this second. There’s no guarantee that the monster isn’t going to double back around and come after you. Hopefully he saw it all as Jack playing around with you, but if he thinks you have a thing with Jack, he may make things difficult.”

  I wondered if the other people working would take issue with me walking in and locking the doors. I wasn’t sure what Abbie thought she could do that I couldn’t. She wasn’t able to freeze an entire room of people with a single word, or do any of the many other spells I’d cooked up over the years.

  “I think your logic is all wrong, but I’m too tired to argue. You better be prepared to sit in a corner so you stay out of my hair.”

  Chapter Five

  “Is this seriously all you do all day? Why do you put yourself through this torture?”

  Abbie had remained in one of the reading chairs most of the afternoon, grabbing various books to keep her attention. None of them seemed to do the job. I counted at least eight changes over five hours.

  “You didn’t have to sit here all day. He hasn’t come back, and I don’t think that kid throwing up really served as a threat.”

  “That’s exactly what I’m talking about. When you aren’t doing absolutely nothing, you’re cleaning up messes. Last I checked, you have quite a bit of money stashed away. There’s no reason for you to spend your days here.”

  Every witch had money put away. The necessity of moving every once in a while made that essential, so she wasn’t incorrect to assume I didn’t really need a paycheck. Since I had a few homes that I rented out around the country, I had a steady income without lifting a finger, on top of money I’d procured illegally.