CHAPTER 2
“It still feels pretty weird,” Fisher said as he hauled another crate of equipment into their new makeshift lab.
“Change is always weird, dude,” Winters shot back without looking at him.
Fisher wiped the perspiration forming on his brow with a lanky forearm and then dragged his fingers through his damp blond hair after he set down the heavy load. “Yeah, but for as long as I can remember I’ve been in the military. I don’t know jack about this entrepreneur crap. Two months out and I feel like a. well. yeah. like a fish out of water. Get it?”
“Fisher being a fish out of water, aw, man. bad pun.” Clarissa shook her head and offered Fisher a reassuring smile. “Me, Winters, and Bradley have been government contractors for years. Even Doc Holland has after coming out of uniform. So don’t worry. It’s almost the same as having a lifetime job, as long as we don’t screw up.”
She pushed her heft out of her chair and went to help Bradley arrange his dark-arts manuals and ancient texts on the wall-to-ceiling bookshelves. When she neared him, he brushed her mouth with a casual kiss and moved a strand of her short blond bob behind her ear.
“When you guys get to be my age, past forty, you learn to take things in stride and count your blessings.” Bradley allowed his intense dark gaze to settle on Clarissa for a moment before he glanced over his shoulder at Fisher. “Like not having to deal with the possibility of coming under the command of another SOB like Colonel Madison, even though he finally came around. The next commander you got might not be as forward thinking as General Westford, you know.”
“You don’t have to tell me twice,” Fisher said, giving Bradley a mock salute. “But as long as the POTUS likes our unit and is gung ho about this whole supernatural thing, dickheads like Madison won’t be a problem.”
“Until there’s a change in administration, and then it’s a crap shoot again.” Bradley pushed his horn-rimmed glasses up the bridge of his nose, studying the binding of a text as he spoke. “Like Winters said, Fish—change is inevitable.”
Winters nodded but didn’t glance up from the computer he was installing. “It’s gotta be bizarre, though, dude. Like, how long were you and Woods in the Service?”
Woods smiled and playfully ruffled Winters’s shock of brunette hair as he passed him, sipping a longneck beer. “As long as you’ve been in diapers, kid.”
Winters pulled back and then suddenly jumped up to play-box with Woods, who only responded with one hand, expertly maneuvering with his brew held mid-air. The matchup was so ridiculous that the other team members simply shook their heads. Winters was a skinny 150 pounds soaking wet, and his greatest physical exertion was wielding thumb strength on his computer games. Whereas Woods had been combat hardened for years, stood a full head taller than the poor kid, and weighed in at about 180, with less than 5 percent body fat, not to mention the fact that he owned a quarter compliment of wolf DNA, like Fisher did.
“Hey, no fair,” Winters finally said, laughing, unable to land even one blow. “Between Delta Force training and freaking wolf DNA, I didn’t stand a chance against you—but that’s the only reason. My kung fu, under normal circumstances, is strong, bro.”
“Yeah, okay. Save it for a hunt.” Woods chuckled and polished off his beer, then hauled another crate over to the lab tables.
“It’s cool. I got your back, lil’ brother,” Fisher said, grabbing a beer and heading toward Woods to roughhouse with him. “This ole country boy’s got a little bit of the wolf thing going on, so—”
“So I wish you gentlemen would stop horsing around in here with all this expensive equipment,” Doc Holland said, suddenly filling the doorway. Although deep frown lines wrinkled his dark, leathery face, amusement played around the edges of his mouth and hid in the gray stubble covering his cheeks, despite his gruff tone. “There’s over a quarter-million dollars’ worth of hard-negotiated-for Paranormal Containment Unit government-issued, breakable items in this room alone. How would you like it if I started yanking around in your artillery shed out back? Not to mention the cost that went into restoring this Spanish-style single and pulling strings to get the zoning, need I go on?”
Bradley offered Doc a half smile. “I told them if they come near my bookshelves with that nonsense, or knock into my crystal ball, I’ll hex them.. Perhaps you need a ward for the computers and lab gear?”
Both Woods and Fisher let go of each other and downed their beers, laughing as they pounded each other’s fists and pointed at each other to signify the fight game would resume later.
“Just because we’re no longer in uniform doesn’t mean all discipline goes out the window,” Doc fussed. “I might take you up on the ward, though, Bradley.”
“All right, all right, we’ll be outside in the backyard,” Woods said in a good-natured tone. “All this packing and moving is making me claustrophobic. Are we done yet?”
“It ain’t the move to this big ole house in the French Quarter, bro,” Fisher said, turning a beer up to his mouth and waggling his eyebrows. “The moon was a beaut last night and is even better tonight, feel me?”
Woods took up a beer from one of the six-packs on the table and clanked it against Fisher’s. “That she was, brother. and that she is.”
Doc released a weary sigh. “The guy working in the basement should be done within the hour. Once we get the alarm system installed, you gentlemen are off the clock. It’s been quiet lately, but almost too quiet. so be careful when you head out, all right?”
“Most excellent,” Fisher said, dodging away from another one of Woods’s quick jabs.
Woods bobbed and weaved away from him, a beer in hand. “We’ll be reachable by electronic leash—the old cell-phone method—but tonight. this dog’s gotta hunt.”
“Come on, guys, can I go to the bar with you this time?” Winters looked from Fisher to Woods with a plaintive expression. “Who wants to be stuck in here with Brads and ’Rissa? No offense, but you guys are like sickeningly in love. Or Doc, seriously no offense, but need I say more?”
“Take him with you before I kill him,” Doc muttered. “I may only be half Shadow Wolf, but sometimes I swear I feel my canines coming in.”
Winters shrugged. “Sorry, Doc.”
Doc Holland released a long breath. “And note that he’s Vampire bait alone, so do look after him, if you do take him to those houses of ill repute you gentlemen frequent.”
“The strip club? We’re really going tonight!” Winters was up and out of his chair again. “Like, seriously, you’re not just messing with my mind?”
“Yeah, lil’ bro. We’ll hook you up, but once we get the ladies to say yes, the rest is on you. You’ve gotta handle your business—can’t do that for you.” Woods gave Fisher a wink and then turned up his beer and guzzled it.
“Cool,” Winters said, enthusiastically heading for the door.
“You guys are off the clock once all this new equipment is installed and the alarm guy finishes the install,” Doc said flatly, dampening all enthusiasm in the room. “So the faster you work, the faster you’re out of here.”
Clarissa shook her head. “There is entirely too much testosterone in here. I don’t think I can take another month of this. Any idea when Sasha will be back?”
“You tell me,” Doc grumbled, checking the microscopes for any signs of damage. “You’re our resident psychic.”
Clarissa smiled. “Yeah, but she left with Hunter, remember, and right now the moon is full. Some things I don’t want to open my third eye to see—TMI, ya know.” She dug in her jeans pocket and produced a cell phone. “But there are some old fallback methods that work just as well.”
“You sure you wanna do this, man?” Bear Shadow leaned in close to his pack brother and kept his voice low. “You don’t have to do this, if you don’t want to.”
Crow Shadow pulled away from the huge, linebacker-sized Shadow Wolf and lifted his chin. “Listen, I don’t need you to be talking me out of this as my best man. I’m not gonna have my kid not know his dad. or leave Jennifer ass out to raise a kid all by herself.”
Bear Shadow held two beefy hands up in front of his chest. “I make no judgments. It just seems hasty. Hunter doesn’t know. Silver Hawk doesn’t know, even your sister, Sasha, doesn’t know. and neither does Doc, who would be the last person to have an issue with this, given he never knew you were made until you were grown. So, if there is no so-called family problem with this, then why are we standing in Vegas wearing tuxxes and—”
“Because I need to do this right now, tonight, before I change my mind,” Crow Shadow said, squeezing his eyes shut. “Are you with me, brother?”
“Does she know what you are?”
Crow Shadow opened his eyes and stared at his friend without blinking. “Not. well. not exactly. Like, I tried to start her off easy, you know. telling her that there’s genetic differences that our kid is gonna have. But she got all angry with me and said I was racist.” Crow wiped at the perspiration on his brow and then laughed sadly. “She said she loves what’s growing inside her no matter what color it is. But she don’t know the half of it. If I actually show her, she might have a heart attack. or what if she miscarries or something, man? Like, who knows what could happen, and if I just tell her, she’ll think I’m hitting a crack pipe and that’s the real reason I don’t wanna be there for her and the kid.”
“You do realize that it’s a full moon tonight and she’s pregnant. and this will be your wedding night.”
“Yeah, I know—that’s why. ” Crow Shadow’s voice trailed off as sudden awareness slammed into his brain.
“You gotta go easy, that’s all I’m going to say. She’s a pregnant human female, and I can’t even fathom how you’ll be able to consummate this.”
“Oh, shit. oh, shit,” Crow Shadow said, beginning to pace in a tight line back and forth. “I can’t just back out now, brother. like that would be so fucked up to do to her.”
“Then marry her and deal, but just be easy, man.. I don’t know what else to tell you.”
The two wolves stared at each other for a moment.
“Thanks for having my back, no matter how crazy this shit is.” Crow Shadow sighed hard and then shrugged. “I just wanted to man up, you know. I didn’t want to do what a lot of other Shadows have done, leaving a hybrid kid out there never knowing why it was different, never knowing what its father was. We were lucky. We got raised by the pack, had the whole clan with us. I can’t do to my kid what got done to Doc. His old man walked away and left him out there a half-breed to figure it out on his own. Then my own mom pawned me off on a full-blooded wolf to make me be accepted as a full-blood, you know. All that time I thought the man who raised me was actually my dad and he wasn’t. Even though I understand why my mom did it for my own protection, the shit was wrong eight ways from Sunday, man, and once I found out I vowed I wouldn’t be party to anything that foul.. Then this accidental scenario with Jennifer cropped up, all because I didn’t understand human female cycles.”
When Bear Shadow lowered his gaze to his shiny black shoes, Crow Shadow looked away and shook his head, shoulders slumping.
“I don’t even love her, man. She’s nice, she’s cool, I like her, she’s pretty—but I don’t know her well enough to say all that I love her. but I have to do the right thing or else that makes me a hypocrite and a liar. Plus, the kid is gonna have a hard enough time in the human world, not only being genetically different, but it’ll be part white, part Native American, and part black. Jen works as a cashier at a donut shop, understand? If I don’t do my part, then what happens to our kid? Her people already disowned her for messing with a guy like me—I show up with canines and they call the dogs and start loading shotguns. Shit. I can’t just leave her and my kid to all that. Am I making any sense to you, man?”
Bear Shadow released a long, weary sigh as from the corner of his eye he glimpsed Jennifer entering the wedding salon. He landed a heavy hand on Crow’s shoulder. “I’m with you, man. till the bitter end—no matter how insane this decision is. Honor is always the way of the wolf.”
Elder Balog Kozlov opened his eyes and sat up slowly with an angry hiss. As he telepathically perceived Elder Vlad’s impassioned message from half a world away, Elder Kozlov could feel that the sun had just gone down over his beloved Carpathian Mountains, shrouding his castle in darkness.
Unable to comprehend the sheer arrogance of the affront Elder Vlad described, Elder Kozlov rose from his black marble tomb, sliding the top off with ease to stand. Wall torches lit in the dank stone subterranean lair as he passed them while his dark crimson robe billowed behind him on a supernatural energy current.
“The Unseelie have been an abomination for centuries!” he exclaimed through lethal fangs. “They play with our food. They taunt our livestock—our humans! That has always been transgression enough for me to eliminate them from my territories.” Imagine ranchers allowing wolves to run amuck to torture and stampede prize stock. What would the wise rancher do to protect his herd?
Elder Kozlov nodded, receiving the appropriate response from Elder Vlad. “Yes. He would kill the wolf to restore order. But if that wolf then got into his children’s bedrooms and killed six of his beloved offspring. what would he do to the wolf, then?”
Elder Kozlov closed his eyes and nodded, making a tent with his long, spidery fingers before his mouth. “Yesssss,” he murmured in a hiss. “We’ve tolerated them long enough. but this is unacceptable. We must find the parties responsible and make a display of butchery so severe that any remaining offenders that had not been routed out would smell the death of their kind on the land and fear to ever come near our property again.”
When he opened his eyes, his pupils glowed red within the totally black orbs that had overtaken his irises. He nodded with satisfaction and then turned to set his powerful gaze upon the stone gargoyles around the crypt and watched the stone come alive ready to do his bidding.
“Elder Vlad,” he murmured, going over to a fawning creature to pet it, “you may avail yourself of the resources from our central lair. New Orleans is an important holding. Let me know when you need reinforcements from Europe and it shall be so.”