Mist on the Meadow (20 page)

Ralph stepped aside, eyes trained on Wolf.
“So what? You want to hit him?” He motioned toward Chuck. “Will
that make you feel better?”

“You shoulda fixed it eleven years ago.”
Wolf’s voice gave way. And then the dam broke. He turned away while
he swiped away renegade tears.

Ralph clasped Wolf’s shoulder. “He’s
trying.”

Eleven years of mastering his control all
gone to shit. Wolf was nothing more than a blubbering idiot. “Now
he’s brought an innocent person into the mix.” The urge to drive
back to Marissa’s parents’ house was strong. He couldn’t seem to
break the spell she’d bound him with, and now, thanks to Uncle
Pete, Elliot had threatened the one person left on this earth that
he’d taken the time to care about.

Das
ist die
Liechtensteiner
Polka
mein
Schatz
!
Polka
mein
Schatz
!

Wolf’s eyes widened. What the hell? Why was
he thinking about a freaking polka? He was definitely losing his
mind.

He pushed out the kitchen door into the
night and stopped before he tripped over a red fox.

The fox ran to one side of
the porch and looked up at him. Its ears twitched as it sniffed the
air. Wolf stood still. The fox rose onto its haunches and damned if
the thing didn’t grin at him. The fox’s dilated pupils reflected
the three-quarter moon overhead with a hypnotic effect. At the edge
of his vision, a shadowy shape floated against the wooded lot, but
he couldn’t take his eyes off the fox. The experience was oddly
quieting. Either that or his mind had finally snapped. Wolf turned
his head, eyes still locked with the fox. He wanted to see what was
floating among the trees. Certainly he could still control his
actions. With a concentrated effort, he shifted his gaze in time to
see another smile, not dissimilar to the fox’s. The image of his
grandmother mouthed the words, “
mein
Schatz
,” and then she was gone.

The fox dropped to all fours and skittered
off, into the woods, through the spot where his grandmother had
been.

Yep. He was losing his mind.

* * *

Marissa jerked to wakefulness and rolled
over to see what had startled her. Her father stood in her bedroom
doorway. Hex jumped off the bed and scurried into the hallway.

“Sorry if I woke you.” Her father leaned on
the door frame.

“Is something wrong?” she asked while she
stretched her arms over her head.

“Wolf’s here. You sure know how to pick ‘em,
baby girl.”

Marissa rubbed her eyes. “Okay. Let me get
dressed.”

“No hurry, he’s been here a while. He wants
to go to the funeral with us, or rather, with you.”

“A while?” Marissa repeated.

“We’ve been having coffee, he and I.”

Marissa kicked her feet over the side of the
bed. “And?”

Her father looked over his shoulder and
stepped into Marissa’s room. He sat beside her on the bed. “Should
I be worried about him?”

Marissa scratched her head and yawned.
“No.”

“Should I be worried about you? Because that
seems to be why he came over.”

“I don’t know,” she answered. At least now
she knew why Hex had run out of the room. He’d no doubt gone to
greet Wolf.

“He seems to care about you, but this is a
little much, don’t you think?”

“Maybe not.” Marissa avoided her father’s
eyes.

“What’s going on?”

She looked at her father then. “I’ll be okay,
Daddy. I’m guessing he doesn’t want anything bad to happen to me,
the way it seems to happen to the other people he cared about.”

“Maybe he needs counseling,” her father
suggested.

Marissa nodded. “I’m sure I would in his
shoes.” She didn’t pretend she had the skill to help him deal with
his issues, but she did possess the ability to quiet his soul.

“I don’t think we’ll all fit in one car. Can
I at least suggest that you drive if he wants to go? He looks like
he’s had a rough night.”

Marissa nodded again. “Let me get dressed.
I’ll be down in a few minutes.”

When Marissa walked into the living room,
her father was covering Wolf with an afghan. In the time it took
her to shower and dress, Wolf had fallen asleep in the recliner.
Hex leapt into Wolf’s lap and her father cocked his head toward the
kitchen.

“What does he think will happen to you that
has him so worried?” her father asked in a subdued voice. “Can you
tell me about it?”

Marissa poured a cup of coffee. “I don’t
suppose it’s any secret to you that his parents died in a car
crash.”

“That was quite a while ago, wasn’t it? Are
you telling me he hasn’t moved on from that?”

Marissa took a seat at the kitchen table.
“Sort of. I mean he did, in his own way, but there was a question
about the accident, and now new details have come to light. It’s
like he’s living it all over again, coupled with the loss of his
grandmother. It’s a lot to deal with.”

“And how do you figure into all this?” Her
father took the seat across from her.

“Milwaukee’s a long drive. It’s winter. His
parents died in a car accident. My guess is that he’s worried about
another accident.” She locked eyes with her father. “I’m not
qualified to interpret his response.”

“And it doesn’t bother you the way he . . .”
Her father grimaced.

“It’s an extraordinary response to
extraordinary circumstances,” she said in Wolf’s defense.

“Max said . . .”

Marissa held up a hand. “No, Noah told Max
his opinion, which Max twisted into another opinion. Wolf Harper is
grieving. Please, give him the benefit of the doubt and stop
listening to gossip.”

Her father rose from his seat and came around
the table to kiss the top of Marissa’s head. “Okay. I trust your
judgment. But you’ll let me know if you need the cavalry to come in
and rescue you from your troubled Prince Charming?”

Marissa smiled. “Got you on speed dial.”

Wolf appeared in the doorway, scrubbing a
hand through his hair. Ashen crescents underscored bloodshot eyes.
His cheeks and chin bristled with the fresh outgrowth of beard.
Marissa’s father was right. He looked like hell. “Sorry, I fell
asleep.”

“Thought you could use it,” Marissa’s father
replied. “We still have a couple hours before we have to go, if
you’d like to sleep.”

“I had to make sure you were safe.” Wolf
scrubbed his hand across his chin.

Marissa nodded.

Her father stepped aside, his eyebrows drawn
together.

“I should shower and change,” Wolf said.
“You’ll wait for me?”

Marissa nodded again. “Do you want me to
drive you home?”

Wolf glanced at her father. “No, I think
you’re probably safer here, with your family.” He exhaled and his
shoulders slumped.

“Should I be worried about Marissa’s
safety?” her father asked.

Wolf squeezed his eyes shut and then open.
He rubbed them and tried to stifle a yawn. “Icy roads,” he
whispered.

“Go home and get sorted out,” her father
said. “Marissa can pick you up when it’s time to go.”

Marissa held Wolf’s hand through most of the
day. The symbiosis eased her grief as much as she eased his. She’d
overheard her mother at the cemetery, when they placed Uncle Balt’s
urn into the cremation niche, refer to Wolf as a lovesick puppy.
Wolf didn’t seem to notice. In fact, the only impression Marissa
got from Wolf was watchfulness. He frequently scanned their
surroundings to the point of paranoia.

They returned to the church for a luncheon.
Wolf went through the motions, smiling at the appropriate times,
nodding when introduced, not speaking more than was necessary.

It wasn’t until her mother handed her a cell
phone that Marissa pulled her hand from Wolf’s. “What is it?” she
asked.

“Mrs. Prinzel. She insisted on speaking with
you,” her mother said.

“Marissa?” Mrs. Prinzel asked. “I hate to
interrupt you at the funeral and all, but I thought you’d want to
know. I was doing some errands in Cooper Village. Did you know
there are fire trucks in front of your café?”

Marissa shot a glance at Angela, who was
also on the phone. “The café’s on fire?”

“Well I don’t see any flames.”

Marissa struggled to breathe. The café was
her life, her baby. She and Angela had built that business
themselves. Mrs. Prinzel may have thought she meant well by
calling, but without more details, she was little more than a
busybody looking for gossip. “Thanks for calling me.”

She handed the phone back to her mother and
walked over to Angela.

“We’re on our way,” Angela said before she
disconnected her call.

“The fire department?”

“Fire department? No, that was the police.
Someone broke in.”

“What’s wrong?” Wolf appeared beside
Marissa.

“Problems at the cafe,” Angela told him.

Wolf grunted. “Damn it!”

Marissa crouched beside her father to tell
him they had to leave. He spun in his seat and took her by the
arms. “Now I’m worried.” He glanced at Wolf.

“He’s here, isn’t he? It’s not his fault,”
she said.

“Be careful,” her father said.

Marissa kissed her father’s cheek, gathered
her coat and her purse and met Wolf and Angela outside the
church.

“I’ll see you at the café,” Angela said.

“Drive safe,” Marissa replied. She walked
around her car.

“I’ll drive,” Wolf said.

“It’s my car.”

Wolf squeezed his eyes closed. “I’d feel
better if I could drive. If you don’t mind.”

Marissa shrugged. “Whatever.”

Wolf settled into the driver’s seat and
Marissa handed him the keys. He started the engine and flexed his
fingers around the steering wheel while he pulled onto the
street.

No more hand-holding. Obviously, his peace
of mind had been disrupted and he wasn’t ready to share. Marissa
tested her new ability, but was stopped by the discomfort that
turned her stomach.

Wolf must have felt the prod. “Not now,” he
muttered.

“Then tell me. What are you thinking?”
Marissa asked.

Wolf scrubbed a hand across his face. “I
don’t know what to think. My whole damn life has been turned upside
down.”

His life
? Marissa straightened her back. “You’re not blaming me for
this, are you?”

Wolf shot a glance her direction. “No.”

“There’s something you’re not telling me.
When you showed up at the house this morning, you already knew we’d
made it home safe.”

He tapped the steering wheel with the palm of
his hand. “I’m not very good at talking about this stuff.”

“Maybe you should learn.”

Wolf took a deep breath. “My cousin was at
the Manor when I got home. I didn’t want to be there with him, and
I didn’t want to drive back to the city, to my own place.”

“There are hotels.”

“I’m worried about you, okay?” he shot her a
glance. “And rightfully so. What are the chances someone just
happens to break into the café?”

“You freaked my father out, you know.”

The muscles in Wolf’s jaw worked. “I don’t
suppose there’s anything that can be done about that now. It isn’t
exactly as if this is your ordinary relationship.”

Marissa folded her arms. “What exactly is
it?” She regretted the words as soon as she’d spoken them. How long
had she known Wolf? A week? And here she was asking him the “where
are we going with this?” question.

Wolf surprised her by taking her hand. She
closed her eyes and inside Wolf’s head she saw a playset, two
children pumping their legs as the swings soared toward the sky
while a third child ran through the treehouse section and flopped
down the slide. She stood beside Wolf, arm in arm, with Harper
Manor in the background.

“There are some things in
life you just know.” His words pulled her out of the domestic
vision he’d conjured. “This thing that’s happening with us—this
doesn’t happen. Maybe I don’t understand about this
Kundigerin
thing, and
maybe it means you’re a witch and you’ve done something witchy to
me. All I can say is that
everything
is different
now.”

What she’d seen in his head was a dream. Not
a premonition. Marissa let go of his hand. Was she a witch? Wolf
was the first person she’d been able to read. She and Wolf shared
things people weren’t meant to share. That kind of intimate
knowledge was seductive, but not necessarily deep-rooted. Marissa
grieved Uncle Balt, and Wolf was certainly more vulnerable than
even he knew.

So why did she want to cry over the loss of
three children who hadn’t been born?

They were both overemotional. They’d both
lost loved ones, and for Wolf, he’d lost his family for the second
time. Was it wrong to comfort each other? And then her body
responded with a flush of heat. This whole ‘reading his thoughts’
thing sent waves of heat through her.

Marissa looked at Wolf’s face, and he met
her glance with a smile. “I could pull into a rest stop for ten
minutes,” he said.

Marissa tingled for his touch. She blew out
a slow breath to ease the craving. He’d wondered if he was
bewitched. She wondered, too. Now wasn’t the time for a quickie at
a rest stop.

Tonight. She would go back home, to her
apartment. Or she would go to Harper Manor. Either way, she was
certain she wouldn’t be spending the night alone.

* * *

Wolf pulled into the
parking lot of
Mangela
amid the flashing lights of the emergency vehicles. A quick
scan showed him that Angela hadn’t arrived yet. A policeman
approached the car and leaned against the roof while Wolf opened
the window.