Wolf Fever (17 page)

Ryan mulled that over, not saying anything for about a mile, and then shook his head. “Great.”

“Great, what?”

“How does this work, Carol? Do you conjure up the visions? Something trigger them? Or do they just happen?”

She studied his stern face. “They just happen.”

“You can't force one?” He glanced at her, his eyes trying to read her like a wolf's would.

She looked back out the window.

He didn't say anything for some time, but then he pulled over to the side of the road. Startled, she glanced at Ryan, wondering what was up now.

Jake drove up behind them and parked. Ryan's cell phone rang, and he jerked it off his belt and flipped it open. “Yeah, we're okay, Tom. We just have to discuss a little matter.” He ended the call and pocketed his phone. “Can you force a vision?”

She frowned at Ryan. “Not exactly.”

“Define
not exactly
.”

“It's not normal for me to be able to force a vision.”

“But?”

She took a deep breath. “Maybe it's the changes in me. Being a werewolf. Or maybe as I grow older I have a little more control. I don't know. Sometimes I can do so now. Not any particular one, but of something that is close to happening.”

“Like?”

“Darien not being able to shift back.”

“Wishful thinking?” Ryan asked.

She cast him her chilliest look, one that could have frozen the nearby lake despite it being spring. “The night before last, I envisioned someone in a red-and-white-striped jacket tackling me. The feeling I had wasn't fear but annoyance, so I knew it couldn't be too bad.”

Ryan swore under his breath, reached out and took Carol's hand, and squeezed. “Mervin at the game.”

“Yeah. He's the one that kept me awake half the night with the stupid visions of him.”

Ryan sighed. “All right.” He pulled back onto the road and headed the rest of the way into town.

All right? Now he believed her?

“How about a vision of anything else? Foresee any problems at work, perhaps?”

“No. I'll let you know about any visions I have. I said I would.”

He drove in silence for a while and then said, “Why did you conjure up the vision of Darien?”

She sighed under her breath. What difference would it make if Ryan knew? She looked out the window and said softly, “To keep from shape-shifting.”

Ryan remained so quiet that she glanced back at him. He snapped his mouth shut. Then he said, “Hell, Carol. You're a ticking time bomb.”

She smiled. “Really hot stuff you mean?”

“You're hot, all right. And you'll work with only werewolf patients, like Darien ordered.” Ryan glanced at Carol, his expression all business. She would obey him, or else.

She smiled back. “Of course. Unless we're swamped with human patients.”

Ryan ran his hands over the steering wheel. “That's not the deal, and I won't go along with it. You're one dangerous lady. So about these nightmares you're having…”

She sighed loudly. “They're about the visions, about being bitten and changed, and they haunt me. Probably brought about by the drug the reds used on me.” She wondered if the drug had inhibited the need to shift last night. She took a deep breath, relieved she hadn't tried to shift while Ryan was sleeping with her. Or doing anything else. A chill cascaded down her spine. Could having sex trigger a shift?

“Do you… believe in dream mating?” he asked out of the blue.

H
ER STOMACH CLENCHING WHEN
R
YAN QUERIED HER
about dream mating as he drove her to the hospital, Carol worried that maybe he believed in such a thing and was searching for the woman of his dreams. And she wasn't it.

Still startled, she stared at him in disbelief. “Do you?”

“Of course not. But I wondered if you did.”

“Oh.” Her stomach unclenched several degrees. She thought about the stories Lelandi had told her and nodded. “Sure. Lelandi and Darien were dream mated. I didn't know such a thing could exist until I heard of their case. Why bring it up?”

Ryan remained silent, and Carol huffed. “You tantalize me with some tidbit of news and then don't share it with me? What if I were to do that with you? Say that you wouldn't believe the vision I had this morning, but then not tell you what it was.”

“Did you?”

She paused and then let out her breath. “I'm not sure if it was the drug or what, but I saw a golden room and brilliant lights spilling into it from another room. I was drawn to the lights, as if I didn't have any choice. And then shots were fired, and I heard…” She thought for a moment. Ryan glanced at her. She continued, “I heard Sam shouting. Then more shots rang out. So what brought on this dream mating query all of a sudden?”

Frowning, Ryan tapped his thumbs on the steering wheel and didn't answer her for some time. Then he said, “Was the golden room a premonition of something to come, Carol?”

“It might have been nothing more than the effect of the drug.”

“Think carefully. You heard shots in the vision? Before Sam shouted?”

“The gunfire might have been outside of the vision. I might have heard it as I was envisioning the room.”

“No,” he said, his voice dark. “Shots rang out
after
Sam hollered. That's why they fired in his direction. At the sound of his voice. No gunfire sounded before that.”

Carol considered the implications. Not good. She would be in a room headed toward another filled with bright lights where someone was shooting. Why would she do that?

“What are you thinking, Carol?” He reached over to squeeze her ice-cold hand. His hand felt warm and large and secure.

“The room means danger.”

“Then you're not going there.” He glanced at her and continued to hold her hand.

“Right.”

He didn't say anything for half a mile and then let out his breath. “Okay, so what happens in the room?”

“I don't know. That's what's so frustrating about my visions. I don't know what happens. What about your dream mating inquiry?” Carol watched him, chewing her lower lip. Had he dreamed of her? She was fairly sure she hadn't dreamed of him, and she was certain she would have remembered.

“Tom said he was waiting for the woman who would reach out to him in his dreams.” Ryan glanced at her. “I thought you should know.”

“Ah.” Which meant that if Ryan wasn't the one for her, she'd have to scratch Tom off her list, too. She sighed with disappointment. “That's good to know. But a dream woman is no match for the real thing.” She folded her arms around her waist.

“Meaning?”

“Meaning that if the right woman came along, whether she was in his dream or not, I'm sure he'd want her.” She looked out the window. It appeared to be the start of another sunny day, not a cloud in the sky… too bad she had to work. After the terror of last night, it would have been nice to curl up on Darien's porch with Puss sleeping on her lap, a cup of hot cocoa, and a good time-travel romance set in Scotland to read. Or if the house had been empty, she could have taken a nap with Ryan, although she might not have gotten any sleep.

But then again, she wouldn't have taken that much enjoyment in either, knowing Matthew and Charlotte had to work longer hours to make up for her not being there.

“Jake doesn't believe in dream mating,” Ryan said, as if that would make her feel better.

“Yeah. I don't blame him really. I'm sure I'd never conjure up my soul mate that way, either. But still, it's an interesting way to satisfy some needs before they can be truly met. Don't you agree?”

Ryan pulled into the hospital parking lot, and Jake parked right alongside him on the passenger's side. “I think any substitute for the
real
thing wouldn't be half as satisfying.” He gave her a slow predatory grin.

Her body felt like she'd been roasting in the sun all day, but she managed a shake of her head and a small smile. “Lelandi warned me you were a wolf.”

He chuckled, but before he could say anything further, her door opened. She turned to see Jake holding it open for her, waiting for her to exit the truck.

“Thanks, Jake.” She cast Tom a sideways glance. “I hear you're waiting for a dream mate to appear for you. Hope you don't have to wait long.” She smiled, even though she was disappointed. She'd have to scratch him off her list of hopeful mates, which looked as though that left her only with Jake. She hurried inside the hospital as Tom turned to his brother and scowled.

“You told her that?” Tom asked his brother.

“Hell, no. I don't even believe in that nonsense.” Jake looked at Ryan, who raised his brows as if he didn't know what they were talking about.

Ryan stalked after Little Miss Nightingale. What part of—he was her protector at all times—did she not get?

“Who the hell else knows?” Tom asked Jake, following them into the hospital as Mervin brought up the rear.

“I swear I didn't tell anyone about our conversation. I don't know how Carol found out.”

Ryan wasn't one to eavesdrop, normally, unless it suited his purpose in his P.I. work. But if Tom wasn't truly interested in Carol, and she had hopes he might be, Ryan hadn't wanted her to be disappointed. He stalked after her as she headed down the hall of the clinic, while Tom, Jake, and Mervin trailed behind them.

The place smelled of disinfectant and fresh floor wax, rubbing alcohol, and, in the staff lounge, harsh coffee brewing. Ryan couldn't imagine working in a hospital
environment, day after day. He much preferred the fresh out-of-doors, where he met with the residents and businessmen as mayor while coming up with plans for improving the city; the fragrance of new leather in his truck while he was in his P.I. surveillance mode; and the aroma of cocoa java bubbling at his office, compliments of his administrative assistant. Ingrid dutifully kept the business going whenever he was on an assignment elsewhere.

A tall male nurse named Matthew approached them, wearing blue scrubs and carrying a chart. He looked official as he headed toward Ryan and Carol in the wide hall washed in light. With dark hair and eyes, and a build that was a little scrawny and wiry, he looked like most of the other grays in Darien's pack. The guy cast Carol a harried smile, and
that
bugged Ryan more than he wanted to admit. Matthew pinned Ryan with a look that meant he didn't like Ryan following Carol so closely.

“He's her bodyguard,” Jake said, explaining the relationship.

Matthew's expression remained hard, and he said to Carol, “I'm sorry I didn't make it to the gathering. Work, you know. But if you'd like to go out tonight…”

He let his words trail off. If Ryan had been Matthew, he would have scheduled the date, not left it up in the air like that. The other thing that bugged Ryan was that the rest of the pack knew about Carol's abduction already, so this clown had to. Otherwise, he was certain Matthew would have asked why she needed a bodyguard. So why didn't Matthew say anything about her being kidnapped and offer her consolation, protection, or anything? The guy was a total loser when it came to winning a woman over—that's why.

“Where did you want to go?” Ryan asked Matthew. “On a date?”

Matthew's jaw dropped. Carol looked like she was fighting a smile. Jake grinned. Tom shook his head. Mervin stared at Ryan as if he had lost his mind.

Ryan folded his arms. “I go where Carol does. So…” He shrugged. “Where did you have in mind?”

Matthew stiffened and spoke again to Carol as if Ryan hadn't just addressed him. “I'll talk to you later. Have to see a patient. Another case of the flu, I'm afraid. I've heard she came to the gathering last night.”

“The gathering?” Carol glanced in the direction of the waiting area and saw Marilee reading a magazine. “The masseuse?”

“Yeah. The other, Becky? The librarian? She was already in here earlier.”

Carol frowned. “Diagnosis?”

“Flu.”

“Great. Then they exposed Lelandi.”

“Yeah, well, I'm sure Darien's not going to like it, but then again, they probably didn't know they were coming down with it,” Matthew said.

“Marilee could have known,” Ryan argued. “She began coughing when I danced with her. She said it was allergies. If she's got the flu, she could very well have suspected that's what she had. She may have been worried that Darien wouldn't let her come to the gathering.”

Matthew clenched his medical chart, his neck muscles tightening. “That's the problem with a Private Dick. Everyone's guilty until proven innocent.”

“Have anything in your past you're afraid to share with the pack, Matthew? I understand you came here
after your brother and his family and you had difficulties in a former pack. Anything that could create problems for you here if your past came under scrutiny? I'd be happy to look into it for Darien as a favor to the family.”

Matthew's face reddened, and Ryan wondered what the nurse might have to hide. Carol looked like she didn't appreciate Ryan bringing it up here in front of Jake. But if the guy was going to attack Ryan's business ethics, he was fair game.

“We'll get together another time for a date.” Matthew gave her another hint of a smile, cast a deadly look at Ryan, and hurried off.

Satisfied that he'd chased off a potential suitor who wasn't good enough for Carol, Ryan waited for her to go about her nursing business.

“Being in charge of my social calendar is not what you're paid to do,” she said with mock indignation.

“I'm getting paid to guard you wherever you go and no matter who you're with, Carol. That's the deal.” Ryan smiled.

Carol did not look too disappointed that he had put a damper on the date with the male nurse, however, Ryan noted.

Jake grinned at the exchange and then grew serious and started giving orders. “Mervin, take a chair and sit by the back door so you can make sure no one we don't know goes in or out of there. Tom, you can watch the entryway and waiting room. I'll check out the exam rooms and the perimeter of the place while Carol sees her patients. And, Ryan, let either of us know if you need a break, and we'll stick close to Carol then.”

Ryan offered a single nod.

Jake gave Carol a last command also. “You see
only
special patients, not any of the others, Carol. One of us has to be with you at all times.”

Exasperated, she sighed. “Fine. I have work to do.” She headed into an exam room and busied herself with something nursing in nature, Ryan assumed, while he watched her back. Afterwards, she went to her station, took the first patient's chart, and then returned to the waiting area.

Ryan wanted to speak with her about what had happened between them earlier that morning. But he knew he shouldn't, or he'd find himself sunk even deeper into a quagmire of trouble. The way she had looked at him in the kitchen that morning, flushed with awkwardness, had endeared her even more to him.

He figured everyone in the room—Darien, his brothers, Lelandi, even that lame Mervin—suspected more had gone on between Carol and him during the night than they'd admitted. And he regretted he'd have to be more… guard-like tonight. Sitting in the recliner would have to do.

His attention on Carol, Ryan felt like a puppy following his master around as Carol called out, “Miss Silverpenny?” But he didn't mind, as long as Carol remained safe.

Silverpenny was a good gray name, and when the petite elderly woman stood up from a chair in the waiting area, Ryan relaxed a little. She appraised Ryan as she joined them and smiled at Carol. “How was the gathering, dear?”

“Great,” Carol said, walking at the woman's slower pace to her nurse's station and casting a look at Ryan as if she didn't want him to contradict her.

But hell, he hadn't danced with anyone in eons who'd made him feel like a randy teen like Carol had. And he would have remained on the floor, holding her close, swaying to a new song, if he hadn't known he'd have to give her up to the other bachelor males after a dance or two. More than that, though. He hadn't wanted her to dance with Jake or Tom, not close like he'd danced with her, and he'd been afraid Jake might have tried to butt in.

Folding his arms, Ryan leaned against the wall across the hall and out of the way as Carol helped the woman stand on a scale.

“I swear I shrank another inch and gained two more pounds,” Miss Silverpenny grumbled, her slim figure on the frail side.

Carol smiled.

The woman cast a glance over her shoulder at Ryan. “When she measures my height, she makes me remove my shoes.” She motioned to the thick wedge-soled shoes she wore, which would add an inch and a half to anyone's height. She pointed an accusing finger at Carol, although her eyes twinkled with mirth. “And when she takes just my weight, she won't let me remove my shoes.” They had to have weighed at least five pounds.

The woman reminded him of his cantankerous old Aunt Tilda, good-natured and harmless.

“Are you her boyfriend?” the woman asked, her tone serious now.

Ryan opened his mouth to reply in the negative, but Carol beat him to it, which bothered him to a degree. Not that he minded her telling the truth, but that she seemed so anxious to ensure no one thought he might be
the one for her. What was wrong with him as a prospective mate, anyway?