Delilah Devlin - My Immortal Knight 03 (8 page)

A blur of motion seen from the corner of his eye was
all the warning Joe got before something heavy slammed into his chest, taking
him down. Its heavy body weighted Joe’s limbs, pinning him to the cement. He
had a glimpse of a wolf-like face with flat, reflective gold disks for eyes,
thick fur, and a long, dark snout. The black nose poised above Joe’s face and
the creature inhaled deeply. Sentient intelligence gleamed darkly in its gaze,
then it lifted its head and howled—a sound unlike any canine howl he’d ever
heard.

For a long moment, Joe lay beneath it, unresisting and
unbelieving. The beast was another kind of monster—one he’d thought a figment
of folk tales and Hollywood. Kind of like vampires, before he’d learned
different during his years on the force. If what his gut told him was true,
werewolves did exist! And this one looked pissed.

It sniffed Joe like a dog savoring the smell of its
next meal. The animal’s hackles rose, and the longer it scented, the louder its
rumbling growl grew, until it reverberated within its chest.

The werewolf opened its mouth and long, serrated teeth
sank into Joe’s shoulder. The creature straddling his body shook its head,
tearing at his flesh.

Joe roared, his lips drawing back in a feral snarl.
Adrenaline screamed through his veins, pumping into his muscles, firing the
rage in his inner beast. His arms strained against the creatures weight until
the change slammed through his body, adding strength to his human frame.

With a powerful surge, he lifted the beast and rolled
with it, smashing the back of its head to the pavement. Then thought became
impossible. Rage, and the struggle to live, supplanted his growing horror. The
beast within him warred with the werewolf, their primal cries a din of growls
and grunts and fierce bellows.

Joe’s hands pried the wolf’s mouth from his shoulder
and he pushed its neck back until bones crackled and the creature made a
strangling sound. The wolf’s haunches strained, forcing Joe to roll again, but
this time he raised his knee, slamming between the creature’s legs. It screamed
and drew back. Joe planted his foot into the beast’s belly, shoving it farther
away, and then he scrambled to his feet.

On all fours the werewolf hunched its shoulders, its
head low to ground as it circled Joe. Beneath the thick pelt, muscle rippled as
it poised to attack. The wolf’s unblinking gaze locked with Joe’s.

“What the hell?” A voice from the end of the alley
shouted. “You there, need help?”

Joe raised his arm and turned his face away from a
bright light that blinded him momentarily. He heard the patter of feet and
realized the beast had run to the opposite end of the alley. Forcing his face
to reform, he drew in a deep breath and reined in his inner monster.

“Mister!” The voice was closer now. “Looks like you
need an ambulance.”

Joe made out the shiny badge and the blue uniform of
an NOPD cop.

The large, barrel-chested officer continued to flash
his light in Joe’s face. “What the hell kind of dog was that? Animal Control’s
gonna need one big mother-fuckin’ cage.”

As the man drew closer, Joe’s human perception
sharpened. He realized the last thing he needed was a cop nosing around this
little mystery. “It wasn’t like any Rottweiler I ever saw,” Joe murmured.

The officer shined his flashlight on his shoulder,
then up again at Joe’s face. “Do you mind me askin’ what you were doin’ in this
alley?”

Joe shrugged. A few months ago he would just have
whipped out his badge and traded cop talk. Instead, he said, “I heard a sound.”

The officer snorted. “Do you make it a habit to
investigate odd sounds in dark alleys? It’s a wonder you’re still breathin’.
Looks like he took a chunk out of you—you’re bleedin’. If you’ll come with me,
we’ll get that seen to.” He reached for the radio strapped to his shoulder.

With a twinge of regret, Joe lunged, his arm snaking
around the cop’s shoulders to draw him close to his body.

The officer struggled, his foot stomping on Joe’s
instep, his elbow slamming back into his ribcage. Joe opened his mouth and bit
into the man’s neck.

The officer continued his fight for a moment, and then
his body grew slack.

Joe fed for several minutes then lifted his head to
whisper in the officer’s ear. “You heard a noise in the alley and investigated,
but you found nothing. Spoke to no one. Now go back to your squad car.” He let
the man go and shoved him toward the street.

Without looking back, the officer walked away, shaking
his head. “Just a damn dog.”

Joe watched until he turned the corner, and then
walked to the opposite end of the alley where he’d seen the werewolf escape. He
sniffed the air, but only faint traces of the creature’s scent remained. He
retraced his steps, wondering what it had been doing in the alley in the first
place. Near the entrance were large trash bins, which served the apartment
building. The side door of one was open and a shredded bag of trash laid
half-in-half-out of the bin.

As Joe stepped closer, he saw a piece of paper flutter
to the ground. It was a phone bill with the name “ Lily Carlson” printed at the
top. Heedless of the acrid smell from the bin, he reached for the remnants of
the one demolished bag and dumped its contents. Tissues and feminine articles
littered the ground. Lily’s fragrant musk permeated the items.

What interest would a werewolf have in scenting on
Lily’s trash? Joe’s instincts, his cop instincts, knew this wasn’t a random
act. The wolf had targeted Lily’s bag among all the others in the bin.

He hurried back to the apartment building. Until he
knew what all this meant, Lily wasn’t going anywhere without him.

* * * * *

“You snore.”

Lily lifted one eyelid and glowered at Joe. Only the
light from the open bathroom door shone on his features; he’d covered the
French door with a blanket. He was lying on his side, his head propped on his
elbow—watching her.

She hoped she hadn’t also been drooling.

“I do not snore,” she enunciated.

A grin turned up the corners of his mouth. “How do you
know?”

“I’ve never heard it.”

“Ahhh…so you only believe what you see or hear for
yourself?”

She twisted to look at the digital display of her
alarm clock. It was 3:30 in the morning! What right did he have to look this
good and expect her to engage in an intelligent conversation? She drew a deep
breath and lowered her eyebrows to show her displeasure.

His gaze went straight to her breasts and she realized
she was still naked as a newborn while he was fully dressed. She pretended
unconcern with the disparity and tilted her chin. “Any good scientist bases her
conclusions on empirical evidence.”

“Yet you believe I fly only because I entered your
room from your balcony.”

“Are you telling me I came to an erroneous conclusion?”

“No, I’m telling you that you jump to conclusions like
the rest of us. Sometimes, you trust a kernel of evidence and believe what you
want to believe.”

Lily opened her mouth to give him a rebuttal, but he
pressed his finger over her lips.

“Sometimes, you have to forget about the survey data,
or even what your own eyes tell you, and just trust your gut.”

Lily knew he was talking about more than her snoring. “I
can trust,” she grumbled.

“Is there anyone you trust fully now? If he said, ‘I’ve
seen the Loch Ness monster in Lake Ponchartrain’, would you trust it was true?”

Lily thought hard. The Loch Ness Monster?

“Is there anyone you’d believe?”

Lily felt her frown deepen and didn’t care her
forehead probably looked as wrinkly as a Sharpei’s. “So I snore.”

“That’s better,” he said, his expression too intent
for this conversation to be over.

She wasn’t ready to hear what he had to say,
especially if he was going to say he was leaving. “It’s not very gentlemanly of
you to mention it.”

“I thought you’d like to know. And I never said I was
a gentleman.”

A yawn caught her unawares and her jaw stretched wide.
She wished he’d stop staring. She knew her hair was likely squashed on all
sides so that she looked like her head was really, really long and that her
face looked like a roadmap from all the pink sleep creases. While he looked so
damn unrumpled she knew he’d never slept.

But he had showered. She sniffed. He smelled powder
fresh while she was as ripe as the inside of a gym bag. “I must have fallen
asleep. Do you have this effect on all your women?”

“Would you trust me, Lily?”

She wanted to—she really did. Instead of a direct
answer, she demurred. “Did you wake me for a reason?”

She’d disappointed him. It was as if a veil swept over
his face, wiping the intensity from his expression, leaving a pinched, wary
look in gaze. “What can you tell me about werewolves?”

“That they have hairier chests than yours?”

He didn’t appear to appreciate her attempt at wit. “Besides
that.”

“You’re serious, right?” At his curt nod, she sat up
and reached for her robe. She didn’t know how he could concentrate with her
naked beside him—she couldn’t concentrate while one part of her brain wanted
him to caress her breast or glide his lips over hers.

When she’d arranged the fabric to cover her, she sat
cross-legged on the mattress. “Well, there’s pretty much an international
tradition of folk tales describing shape-shifters. Of humans who could
transform into animals—often into animals people considered their foes like
wolves, bears, and lions. Of course, there’s the Hollywood version of
werewolves—they can only be killed with silver bullets, they change to wolves
during the full moon—”

“Is it?”

“Is it what?”

“A full moon?”

“I can check my calendar. Why?” Lily realized
something was wrong. His change of clothing, the difference in his mood since
she’d fallen asleep… “You’ve been out. What happened?”

Joe’s face darkened and his gaze swung back to nail
her, accusation in his dark eyes. “Why would a werewolf be nosing around you,
Lily? What aren’t you telling me?”

Lily shook her head. Werewolves? It was as unlikely as
having a vampire in her bedroom. “Are you sure?”

Joe shoved up the sleeve of his fresh T-shirt to
expose his shoulder. Long, angry red gashes, already scabbing over, marred his
skin.

She gasped and her gaze returned to his face. “A…wolf
did this? You couldn’t have mistaken a German shepherd or some other large dog
for a wolf?”

“It smelled like a human,” he said, his voice flat and
hard. His gaze was so intent she feared he could read every thought that
flashed through her jumbled brain.

Then her mind slowed to embrace a single clarifying
thought. He wanted her trust. No, he needed it. Whatever had happened to him
before, he’d lost trust somewhere.

Without a single shred of proof, she relaxed and
accepted that she wanted to love him. She’d give him her trust, even if that
was the only thing he ever wanted from her. Without wavering, she looked into
his eyes. “All right, you met a werewolf tonight. Have you ever seen one
before?”

He drew in a deep breath. “I didn’t know they existed.”

“You’re sure he targeted me?”

“Yes. And I think it has something to do with your
scent.”

She grimaced. “I’ll take a bath.”

“No, your woman’s musk is very distinctive. I noted it
right away.”

Not sure that was a flattering remark or not, she
said, “What brought you to the conclusion he was interested in my…musk.”

“He pulled your trash bag out of the bin—the one with
your feminine items.”

Lily blushed and toyed with the belt of her robe. “You
mean, my panty liners, right? I told you I have…a problem.”

Joe’s hand settled over hers, and he squeezed. “I don’t
mean to embarrass you, but I think your problem is more significant than just a
hormonal imbalance.”

Lily nodded, but she did not want to discuss her
feminine hygiene any further. “Those scabs look like they’re over a week old.”

“Vampires heal fast.”

“I should be taking notes.”

“You know you won’t be believed if you publish your
findings.”

Lily gave him a lopsided smile. “My colleagues already
think I’m a bit wacky because of my area of specialization.” She wrinkled her
nose. “They only tolerate me because I’m multi-published.”

“So why
did
you choose vampires?”

Lily looked away. He didn’t know it, but she’d
promised him her trust. Trust bled both ways. “I never knew my mother, but my
father was my whole world. We moved a lot when I was growing up. I didn’t know
why. One night we came home and someone was in our house.” Lily took a deep
breath, trying not to let the horror of that night get to her like it always
did.

Joe’s palm cupped her cheek.