Skye Cree 02: The Bones Will Tell (6 page)

F
or the rest of the evening the tension between Josh and Skye grew worse with each ticking of the clock. By nine that night, when it was time for Skye to make her rounds, the two of them were pretty much ready to part company for a few hours.

They hadn’t said a word to each other since they’d finished dinner. So when he heard the sound of the elevator door clanging shut, he grimaced.

Would things between them ever be normal? How many nights had he heard that ding and hoped like hell the woman he loved would be okay going out at night into Seattle’s mean streets without him?

Since the transformation he might be ten percent wolf but that meant ninety percent of him still required sleep to function. Tonight, he wasn’t sure he’d ever get used to Skye leaving the house every night without him. And right this moment, he wasn’t even certain he had a right to worry about her. Did she even want him to?

Hell, who was he kidding? He’d never stop stressing about her during those hours between nine at night and three or four in the morning. He could never quite settle until she crawled into bed beside him after her “rounds” were done, after she’d exhausted the notion that there were kids out there she could find and rescue.

It helped somewhat knowing Kiya, the silver wolf with the deep blue eyes, they now shared, accompanied Skye into the streets. It was true the wolf protected her, was with her every step Skye took down alleys and dark unlit walkways.

But just because Josh was connected to Skye’s spirit guide now, didn’t mean he wouldn’t have preferred to be out there with both of them. While woman and wolf patrolled, searched, and hunted, he hadn’t yet figured out a way to run his company during normal business hours and put in another six at night with Skye.

So he bided his time on his own at night—while she went out with her wolf in search of—whatever it was Skye needed to hunt. Be it predator or a child in trouble, for Skye he knew she felt compelled to go out.
Period. But understanding and knowing Skye had to go out every night didn’t solve their problems. Not by a longshot.

Josh understood the evil out there. He did. Since he’d seen it firsthand in his own dark, disturbing dreams, he
knew
what it smelled like, what it looked like, what it felt like. But there were nights when all he managed to do was torture himself with the anxiety of knowing she was out there. While at the same time he’d get a minimum amount of shuteye to function during the day. He wasn’t sure he could keep doing this night after night.

And did he have to keep working on her every single day to get her to trust and commit to a long-term relationship with him? Did he want to
work
that hard at getting her to talk about it? Marriage. The woman couldn’t even bring herself to say the word.

Frustrated, disgruntled about the whole thing, he had to get his mind to focus on something else. Opening his laptop, he logged on to try to get a little work done. He wrote and sent a few emails, but after forty-five minutes or so of effort, he just couldn’t concentrate. So he logged off, snapped the lid closed harder than he meant to do.

One glance at the clock got him even edgier. Goddamn it, why hadn’t he gone with her? Something was off. It felt…wrong for Skye to be alone right now.

He reached for his phone, slid the arrow over to unlock. He thumbed over to favorites all the while moving to the elevator. With his hand he banged on the button four times in rapid succession. The door couldn’t open quickly enough. But when it did, he hopped into the car.

Why wasn’t she picking up?

Because something was wrong.
He could feel it in his bones.

To hell with this reasoning, he needed to get to Skye. And he couldn’t move fast enough.

After leaving the
loft, it hadn’t taken long for Skye’s senses to fill with the familiar sounds and smells of the night. As she drifted over to Fifth Avenue and Jackson near Union Station, she caught the unmistakable aroma of fried shrimp coming from Lute’s Seafood Shanty on the corner.

She heard a foghorn somewhere out in the harbor. The sound she’d heard a thousand times before. Glancing to her right, she noticed the hazy blue fog swirl up out of the ground and up into the misty night. Skye pursed her lips at the thick smoke. It always amazed her to watch Kiya take shape. 

The vapor turned bluer, thicker. The energy blast to her system was like a shot of adrenalin. The boost of inner strength ran through her veins. Kiya’s eyes appeared first, a deep violet like her own. The body came next, silver in color. Sleek and elegant, Kiya flicked back her ears in greeting.

She had a moment to enjoy the meeting of mind and spirit as the wolf nipped at Skye’s booted feet. But then Kiya let out a low guttural growl in warning. Out of the corner of her eye, Skye caught movement. Suddenly she was surrounded by a group of five street thugs. Each hard-edged teen looked as if he were looking for something to do and had just hit pay dirt.

“What the hell you doin’ out here this time of night, bitch—alone? You in the wrong neighborhood. Mine.”

Skye drew in a ragged breath, sized up each male of various size and age. In her estimation, none was older than twenty. They did, however, look tough and determined. It was hard to distinguish their eyes clearly in the darkness. But she knew jittery pupils when she saw them and recognized an addict chasing a meth high. Three clutched knives in their fists they waved in the air to make sure she saw they were armed.

Why was it always a knife? Skye wondered.

“Nice night for a walk,” she finally answered, pulling her nightstick from under the black jacket she wore.

“Whaddya plan on doin’ with that thing? That ain’t gonna do you no good here, bitch. Are you too stupid to see we got switchblades? Besides, you can’t take all of us.”

“Wanna bet,” Skye countered, about the same time Kiya bared her teeth in a menacing snarl. While the wolf’s corporeal form got their attention and seemed to mesmerize the bunch, Skye took the time to assess each one holding a weapon. She was pretty sure she could disarm at least two. The third one might be a problem. But what she intended to do with five she didn’t know.

“That’s some dog you got there,” the tallest one pointed out. “Won’t do you no good though. In case you haven’t noticed, you’re outnumbered.”

“And surrounded.
You on our turf now,” one added.

“Not the first time,” Skye admitted, thinking hard about how she could stall until she’d formed a mental plan. “You guys must be new hereabouts ’cause I’ve never seen you before tonight. You’re not sporting any tattoos I recognize.”

“What do you know ’bout it anyway?”

“I know you’re from out of town.” She tilted her head to study the bigger, more imposing one, the one she’d already judged would give her the most trouble in hand-to-hand. “By the looks of the blue fashion statement and the SUR tattoos, I’d say you’re branching out from eastern Washington, looking over the sights here in Seattle, seeing what you can score before heading back to Spokane.”

She must’ve hit a nerve because the big one tossed out, “You’re a mouthy bitch, know that?”

“I’m a lot of things. Mouthy just happens to be one of them. Don’t tell me you like your women meek and mild.”

“Give us your money and we might let you live,” the bold guy sneered.

“Go away now and I might let
you
live,” Skye boasted, beginning to feel that edginess creep in just before a fight.

That valiant statement brought a round of laughter from the youngest follower and the one who looked to be about fifteen. As if contagious, the hilarity spread to the rest of the bunch as they all quickly followed suit.

Skye didn’t wait another minute longer. She took advantage of their merriment and struck out, whacking her nightstick into the largest man. Pivoting, she rifled out a leg, knocking the second-in-command into one of his buddies. Righting herself, Skye shoved her metal baton into the leader’s belly, watched him double over. She brought her leg up and into his chin. The force sent him reeling backward. He went down for the count, but to her dismay he didn’t drop the knife.

Skye didn’t have time to worry about it as Kiya leaped, became airborne. The wolf attacked the one closest to Skye, sinking her teeth into his forearm and wouldn’t let go.

As another man advanced, she caught Josh’s form as he appeared out of the mist. But she didn’t have time to do anything but ram an elbow into her attacker’s gut. Skye dodged a blow, did a flip backward. As soon as she landed, she backhanded the youngest one, connecting a leg kick to his jaw. The force knocked him to his knees.

Skye glanced over, saw the mouthy one doing his best to gain his feet. She went over, sent a booted foot to his head, finishing him off. He dropped like a rock to the cement.

Meanwhile, Josh waded in with fists and punches of his own. “Not so tough now huh, punk?” Josh muttered as he shoved one man into a utility pole head first. The other, he gave a series of kicks to the hands and face. The knife the teen had clutched in his fist flew through the air. Josh heard the clatter of the blade as it hit the concrete. Unarmed now, Josh began to pummel the teenager who stood about his height in stature.  But after taking several blows, the youth fell back, cowered in the street and started yelling, “No. Stop. Don’t hurt me. I give up.”

Josh turned his head long enough to see Skye finishing off the guy hugging the wooden post. Josh zeroed in on the one doing the most begging. He picked him up by his blue Tee. Staring long and hard into the teen’s brown eyes, Josh said in a conversational tone, “Tell me something. How many people do you think you’ve mugged in the last year? Beaten to a bloody pulp? How many people have you left on the streets to bleed to death?”

The guy swallowed hard before answering. “I…I…don’t know.”

“Wrong answer,”
Josh stated as he pinged him into a parked car, knocking him out. Josh spun toward Skye, noted she’d taken care of her three.

“That isn’t fair. You got a hat trick while I only got to play with two.”

“Actually Kiya took care of one. So the score is really two to two. How come it took you so long to get here anyway? I thought the mind meld was supposed to work. It didn’t exactly go down the way we thought, now did it? I didn’t think you’d ever show up. What the hell took you so long?”

“If you’ll take a breath, I’ll tell you,” Josh said, grinning wildly at her in the dark. “I had my head up my ass, my mind on something else. It won’t happen again because I’m not letting you do this alone anymore.”

Skye narrowed her eyes. “Letting me? I had this.”

“You most certainly did not.” Prepared to argue his point more fully, he pointed out, “You could’ve handled three, maybe four, unarmed. But three of these bastards had knives, Skye.
And five? No way could you take down five. I’m not watching you walk out the door anymore and into this kind of combat on a nightly basis.”

“Damn it, Josh.
We’ve been all over this. I know you’re upset with me, upset because I didn’t answer you before when Brad Jones called.”

Josh held up a hand. “This isn’t the time or the place for a discussion about our relationship. So don’t confuse the two, as it seems we have several things we need to deal with in order to wade through.”

“Agreed.”

“Good. Because right now it’s about you not doing this alone—”

“Don’t start this crap now! Especially after Travis and I went another round about this very thing just this afternoon.”

“I’m not Travis,” Josh stated flatly. “Whatever you and Travis discussed doesn’t enter into play here, not tonight, not right now when we’re standing in the middle of the street after we just took care of a bunch of meth heads.”

Skye huffed out a breath. “We need to call the cops and get this scum off Seattle’s streets before we go toe-to-toe. Again…tonight.” Skye glanced around at the bodies littering the road. “I’m pressing charges.”

Josh took out his cell phone, dialed nine-one-one himself. “Damn straight you’re pressing charges. We both are. But there’s no need to argue with me about this. I mean it this time, Skye.”

While Josh relayed the information to a dispatcher, Skye waited for her opening. When he disconnected the call, she pounced. “I wasn’t alone here, Josh. Kiya took corporeal form tonight just as Travis told us she would. These idiots heard her growl. It distracted them long enough to give me an advantage. Both of us charged and it worked.” Skye glanced over at Kiya, still holding onto the man’s arm with her teeth. At Skye’s command, the wolf finally relinquished the thug’s arm. When the man slumped to the pavement, Kiya trotted over to rub up against Skye’s legs.