Pack Dynamics (18 page)

She rolled onto her back and stared at the ceiling. “That Lockwood boy. I thought you were sure that the procedure would kill him.”

He frowned. “I was. It did. He died there, the machines said so. He flatlined.”

She huffed out an irritated breath. “Well, apparently he didn’t flatline enough.”

“What? How do you know?” And he realized—only one thing could explain how she knew. “You can feel him? The vampire link? You’re joking.”

“I wish I were. This is disastrous.” Idna put her hand over her face. “You’re supposed to plan these things, Hans, not just rush into making a vampire willy-nilly. He’ll need training, for one thing. And even with the most careful planning, it doesn’t always work out. Remember what happened last time?”

Yes, he did, and he wasn’t looking for a repeat of the blood and screaming anytime soon. “We should find him and kill him as soon as possible, then. Tonight, during the moon. It will give you a taste of your first blood as a wolf, my dear.” He also wanted to do it before she had the chance to get attached to the boy, before a bond formed, but he wasn’t going to tell her that.

“It shouldn’t be difficult. He must be feeling very lost and alone right now. And the longer we wait, the stronger he’ll become.” She nodded. “Tonight will be ideal.”

O O O

“Good lord, she’s in the phone book,” Ben said.

“Who is?” Janni asked, handing him a mug of warmed blood and sitting next to him on the couch in the living room they’d adopted as their workspace. “By the way, that is … really, really gross.”

He grimaced and took a couple of swallows anyway. Not as tasty as Nick, but it would do. Ben had the feeling that live donors would be few and far between. “Yeah. Sorry, honey. You don’t have to get it for me, you know. I’m perfectly capable of running a microwave by myself.”

“If that’s going to be a thing, we might want a dedicated microwave at home,” she said. “Anyway, who’s in the phone book?”

Gesturing at the white pages, he said, “McFoucher, the doctor in the lab where they had me. She’s listed.”

Janni lifted her eyebrow. “Interesting. So, what’ll we do with that?”

“I could call her and give her the surprise of her life, seeing as she thinks I’m dead. Showing up on her doorstep might be fun, a flash of fur and fang.”

“That would just be mean. Can I watch?”

“Only if you promise to take pictures and then sketch it after. However,” he said, glancing at the windows, “it’s getting dark-ish, and it’s a full moon night. And I think my inner wolf wants to go for a run.”

“A run? In the dark? By yourself?” Janni pulled her legs into her chest and shivered, leaning into him, and he wrapped an arm around her. “I just got you back. If anything happened now—”

He kissed the top of her head. “I’m a vampirized werewolf. Hard to hurt me, now.”

She squeezed her eyes shut. “
They killed you
. And Ostheim is a werewolf too, so he’ll be out there, somewhere, along with his wife.” Her fear permeated the room like a living thing.

“The chances of them being in the same area are tiny.” He tightened the arm around her shoulders, carefully, because he wasn’t quite sure he knew his own strength yet. “And I doubt Alex wants a wolf running around in his multi-million-dollar mansion all night, even if I’m housebroken.”

She buried her face against his chest. “I’m scared, Ben.”

“Breathe, honey,” he said, and she choked out a laugh at the role reversal. “It’ll be fine. I’ll be fine. Just need to stretch my legs. All four of them.” The moon pulled him, relentlessly. The itch in his bones had become a definite ache. “Soon.”

“Okay. Just please … be careful.” Her voice shook. “Come back to me in one piece.”

He used one finger to tilt her head up, stroking her cheek with his thumb and resting his forehead on hers. “I will.”

Chapter Thirteen

The full moon glowed overhead as Megan sat on the edge of Alex’s property in wolf form, her forefeet shifting back and forth with anxiety. She’d just about decided that Ben wasn’t going to show when he ghosted up beside her from downwind and play-bowed, bumping her with his nose and waving his tail. She tumbled him over with exasperated affection, and he rolled with it, ending up back on his feet, tongue lolling with good humor. And if his teeth were a little too long and a tad too sharp, that was all right, because he was smaller than normal and could use the extra protection.

Extra protection from what didn’t bear thinking about.

They ran through the moonlit darkness, delighting in the smells and sounds, digging out mice for the fun of it and scaring the hell out of the local coyote population. When they killed a deer, he slurped its blood down while she fed from the hot meat. A game of tag followed, afterwards, through the scrub.

The night was nearly perfect. Megan had never done this with another wolf before, and she found that it filled a hole inside she didn’t even know she had. It was almost a shame, she thought, that he had a girlfriend, because she wouldn’t have minded applying for the job. She got lonely sometimes.

Ben skidded to an abrupt stop, ears flattened and tail curling between his legs. A second later, she caught the scent, and her hackles rose and her lips lifted from her teeth in a snarl.

Hans and Idna Ostheim had invaded their little piece of heaven.

Megan had, of course, met them at various functions, and her secret wasn’t exactly a secret from them, because they had noses and could smell what she was. But it wasn’t something that was discussed in polite company, and there was an unspoken rule in the supernatural community that you didn’t talk about the status of your compatriots to outsiders who weren’t already in the know, because that led to villagers with torches and pitchforks and cruelty. Wooden stakes and silver bullets from random strangers weren’t that far in the past.

That didn’t mean that they didn’t have their own politics and rivalries, however, and Megan didn’t miss the air of possessiveness Idna had over Ben, which was unmistakable even as a wolf. Well, no way would Megan put up with that, because Ben was
her
pack and these interlopers weren’t going to take him from her. She put herself between him and them and growled, her own intent clear.

Ostheim, not standing on ceremony, leaped in for an attack, which was a breach of ethics and etiquette that shouldn’t have surprised her under the circumstances. He’d been doing that pretty much all along, hadn’t he? She parried his teeth with her own and raked his chest with her claws, while Idna jumped on Ben. Ben let out a surprised yelp and gave way, and Megan only hoped that he’d figure out in time that he needed to defend himself from her better than that.

She had her own paws full, as Ostheim relentlessly snapped at her throat. She realized that this wasn’t some indiscriminate assault; they’d come here seeking Ben and wouldn’t be happy until he was dead for good. Vampire social theory meant that Idna’s sense of responsibility for Ben was even more inflated than Megan’s, and Idna meant to kill him before he became more of a liability than he already was. Vampires had a strict hierarchy that was breached only with gravest peril, and they didn’t create offspring without careful forethought. Ben, clearly, was a loose end they weren’t willing to leave lying around.

They weren’t that far from Alex’s mansion—if she could just fight a rear-guard action for long enough, it might give Ben time to make it there just before daylight and duck indoors before the sun came up. Hans and Idna had to know that keeping Idna out past sunrise would be bad for her complexion, so hopefully they’d retreat before then.

But Ostheim was bigger than Megan and Idna was older and stronger than Ben, even notwithstanding her recent illness and the fact that Ben was larger than she was by a good few inches and forty pounds. Not only that, but Ben still seemed unwilling to hurt her, whether because she was female or because she was his parent in the vampiric sense, Megan didn’t know. She growled at him, letting him know that his misplaced sense of chivalry was going to get him killed, maybe along with her.

He seemed to understand where she wanted him to go, anyway. He was backing them towards Alex’s house without making it seem as though he was heading any place in particular. She noted this with approval, just before Ostheim’s teeth met in her shoulder and he wrenched her to the ground. She yelped involuntarily—

And Ben hit Ostheim like a ton of bricks dropped off a twenty-story building.

He was small, but he was fast, everywhere and nowhere at once. Ostheim turned, expecting an attack on his flank, but Ben was at his opposite shoulder, then his head, then his balls, overflowing with rage from the last few days and at long last faced with someone suitable to vent it on. Megan didn’t take any time to admire the efficacy of his attack, but drove in on Idna instead, and now the battle was truly joined.

Snap and snarl and fang and claw, all of them were cut and bleeding from everywhere, but the tide had turned and put Hans and Idna on the defensive. At last, with the sun less than half an hour away, the Ostheims melted off into the scrub, no doubt going home to lick their wounds and ponder a better strategy.

Ben nosed Megan and whimpered a question. She swiped her tongue across the slash on his face and shoved him toward Alex’s house, growling a little but waving her tail to take the sting out. She wouldn’t have him survive this only to have the sun blast him into a puddle of ash and bones when it came up. He went, reluctantly, looking back at her several times. She watched him until he got to the back door, then turned away and trotted off to her car, curling up beside the front tire to wait for dawn.

O O O

Ben scratched on the basement door, whining through the clothes he held in his jaws. Janni would be upset, he thought, but he could only imagine what would have happened had the Ostheims found him here at the house instead of in the Santa Monica Mountains with Megan.

When Alex opened the door, Ben limped in and dropped the clothes. He collapsed onto his stomach, panting and bleeding.

Alex swore, startled at his condition. “What the hell happened?” he asked.

Ben just flicked an ear at him, like he could explain anything before the sun rose and he reverted back to human. All he really wanted to do was drink some nice warm blood and then sleep for several hours, but he had the feeling he wouldn’t be afforded that luxury. He was so tired that even the rabbits weren’t tweaking his senses all that much.

He’d gotten there just in time; the moon released its grip, and he found himself lying naked and human on the floor. Still panting and bleeding. “Ben?” Alex said.

“I’ll live,” he gasped. He reached out and grabbed his clothes. “In a manner of speaking.” Stiff and sore, he took longer than he liked before his modesty was satisfied, and he rolled onto his back with his arm over his eyes. “Would have been worse if they’d found me here, though.”

“They who? You look like you went fifteen rounds with a chainsaw.”

“Close enough. Ostheim and his lovely wife decided to hunt me down and pay me a visit.” He was a little proud of himself for remembering that he needed to keep Megan’s secret. “Apparently they don’t think they’ve hurt me enough yet.”

Alex swore again. “Vampire politics. Dammit.” Ben could hear him moving around, doing something, but couldn’t bring himself to open his eyes and see what.

“Is this something I’m going to be stuck with until Ostheim is dealt with once and for all?” Utter exhaustion weighed Ben’s limbs. “Because I’m not hanging around here if it is, putting you all in danger.”

“Don’t be ridiculous.” Alex knelt beside him and pushed a glass into his hand. “Drink up. Look, Ben, my company got you into this, and I’ll get you out. Okay?”

Alex had been nice enough to put a straw in the glass, so Ben didn’t even have to sit up that much to drink the warm blood. Everyone had adjusted remarkably well to his new diet. Including him. Ben wondered if life with Alex Jarrett was always this exciting and decided it probably was and that people were just used to molding themselves to new circumstances around him.

He was
tired
. He didn’t even want to move, and dropped his head back to the floor. But if he passed out here, he’d be in everyone’s way, not to mention the fact that Janni would probably come unglued if she saw him cut to pieces like this. He was kind of surprised she wasn’t waiting for him in the basement, and he asked Alex about it.

“I shooed her upstairs a long time ago. She was fretting pretty hard, though.”

“She would.” Ben moaned and maneuvered his arms under himself. “Guess I should go up and let her know I’m back …”

“Not yet, you shouldn’t.” Alex shook his head. “Shower down here first. Seriously, man, you look like crap.”

“I feel like crap. If I have to dodge those two for two more nights—” He stopped, because it didn’t bear thinking about. Not only that, but he’d been bitten by a “real” werewolf. How that would affect him on top of everything else, he had no idea, and he had the feeling that no one else did either, not even Megan. And he wasn’t sure he could handle a shower on his own just yet, although he felt calmer about it than he had any right to. Oh, yeah. Vampire now …

Son of a bitch. “Can I just crawl under the house and hide for the rest of my life? Would that be bad?” He felt a little better, with the new blood lending him its strength. “Is it a handheld shower head down here?” he asked, remembering Janni’s half-inch-away trick. If he could duplicate that, he thought he might be okay.

“All my showerheads have the handheld option.” Alex cocked his head. “Why?”

“It’s a thing.” Ben shrugged. “Don’t like water in my face.” He hauled himself upright and stumbled into the bathroom.

He could do this. He could.

He stared at the shower enclosure, and it stared back malevolently. Breathing was unnecessary, but soothing, and he inhaled for two, held for two, and exhaled for two, three times, bracing himself. He turned the water on and took his clothes off while steam filled the room. The water in the bucket had been cold, so turning the temp up as hot as he could stand it would distance him from the horrific experience of being drowned. Of course, as he’d already noted to himself, he didn’t actually need to breathe anymore, so drowning wasn’t a logical issue. Telling his hindbrain that was a different matter.

He stepped into the shower stall and let the water run across his shoulders and down his back in a pounding spray that felt pretty good, all things considered. He soaped up, and the bites stung but not as much as he expected as he rinsed off.

And blood matted his hair—again. Ostheim had caught him across the scalp and along his eyebrow with a fang, and the steam had opened the cut and caused it to leak into his eye and down his face. He leaned back against the wall with his eyes closed for a few seconds, steeling himself.

“All right,” he said. “All right …” Lifting the showerhead from its bracket, he turned it to its narrowest, slowest setting. He started at his chin and worked it up his cheeks, and he only had to stop once to sit on the bench with his head between his knees before he tackled the slice across his forehead, leaning sideways so the water wouldn’t go anywhere near his nose.

He tilted his head way back and worked the water through his hair, deciding this time to forego the shampoo and just run the spray through until it rinsed clear. Once it did, he replaced the showerhead with a shaking hand and a heart rate elevated far above the “normal” two beats per minute. His legs didn’t want to hold him up anymore, and he sat down with his head in his hands and his eyes squeezed shut.

But he’d done it. A tiny smile played across his lips.

O O O

“That went well,” Ostheim said. He and Idna cleaned each other up as best they could as his driver took them home in the limo with no windows in back.

“I said before that he was brave,” she noted.

“You weren’t wrong.” She rarely was. “Miss Graham was no slouch either.”

“She’s adopted him as pack, didn’t you notice? This is a problem, Hans.” She dabbed at an already-healing cut on his bicep. “We counted on him having no support system, because most of the time a new vampire loses their old family. Ben hasn’t done so, and they seem even more protective of him than they might have been previously.”

“Then we’ll need to redouble our efforts to catch him alone. He killed Deiter. That’s not on the free list.”

“Perhaps we should let them lull themselves into a false sense of security.” Her smile was feral. “Let them think they’ve warned us off. We have all the time in the world to be patient, now that I’m well again.”

He thought about it. “That might be best. I have other things I can concentrate on for the moment. Not least of which—” He pulled her into his arms and kissed her hungrily. “—is you.”

O O O

Megan moaned as she stepped into the nice hot bathtub. That had been way more of a workout than she’d been planning, and she had reason to be grateful, this time, that Alex had cleared his schedule for the week. She rarely called in sick, but she had the feeling that she might today.

The water eased her tired muscles, and she tilted her head back and spread her fingers and toes. The bites had started closing, and she was happy, once again, for her werewolf constitution. She felt faintly silly for wanting to take off from work for something like this, when she wouldn’t even be showing outward signs of it in a couple of hours, but, Lord, she was tired. Maybe she’d just go in late, with the built-in excuse of her “painful period” being more painful than usual.

Yeah. She’d do that. If she could ever bring herself to get out of the tub, which was far more comfortable than it ought to be.

Actually …

She sighed. She should do it now, while she was thinking about it, because she was nearly falling asleep here, and it would be just like Alex to burst into her house with guns blazing because she hadn’t called and he was worried about her.