Behind the Eight Ball Read online

  As we got ready to leave, Janelle stopped me by our vehicles. “Hey, when you get a minute, we need to talk about doing Thanksgiving.”

  “Oh. Do you want to cancel it?” The thought made me sick.

  “Oh, sweetie, no. It’s our tradition. Besides, I know how much it means to you. But… would you mind if we included Sam?”

  “You think he’d want to come? Does his kind even do Thanksgiving?”

  “Most paranormals don’t, but there’s always that oddball.” Janelle grinned. “Like us. Can I ask him? This is your day.”

  “Sure. I have no problem with that. Hey, the more the merrier.”

  “Oh, thank you! It’ll be a blast.” Janelle dug her keys out of her purse. “You have plans tonight?”

  “That would be a no. What about you?”

  “I’m meeting Sam at Arches. Since it’s Saturday night, he has to be there. But he promised me we’d have a private dinner, even if it ends up being just in his office.”

  “So he’s the one, huh?”

  “Oh yes. There’s no mistaking that scent.” Janelle sighed happily. “He’s so cute too. Those pretty blue eyes and that messy dark hair.”

  “Have you talked about your… ah, needs?”

  Janelle happiness faded slightly. “Some. He’s admittedly freaked.”

  “Well, I can see why. Finding out you need blood to survive is a rather large pill to swallow. Not to mention the whole fangs, biting, and venom thing. Have you told him it’s a very small part of you as a person? Tell him to look at it like how humans need water to survive. You don’t need much, but you do need blood. And that you don’t kill.”

  “Most of us don’t kill, Lawson. There’s good and bad Vetalas just like anything else. The problem is he doesn’t really see the difference between us and vampires.”

  “Oh, for God’s sake. If he ever met a vamp, he’d damn well know the difference. They’re assholes, every damn last one of them. And….” My voice rose. Yes, this subject pissed me off. “They’re dead. Dead. As in, you know… non-alive. You’re very much alive. They’re immortal. You aren’t.”

  “The venom freaks him out.”

  “Huh.” I leaned against my vehicle. “Is it the whole being paralyzed thing that’s getting to him?”

  “Yes, but you know why we have that ability,” Janelle said.

  So their prey didn’t struggle while they fed. It was easier to do a mind wipe on calm prey. “Yeah, I know, Janelle. But that’s not a problem now.”

  “It’s still a matter of trust. If I feed during sex….”

  “Then he’s at your mercy. He won’t be able to move for a little while. You know, some would find that hot. Can you, I don’t know, maybe not inject the full dose into him?”

  “There’s never been a reason to try.”

  “I don’t know what to say, but if he wants to talk to me, I’d be happy to answer any questions he has. I mean, I can’t tell him what’s it like to be bitten, but I can tell him about your kind. I guess you guys just need to have a long discussion about this. And soon.”

  “We do, and I have to tell him I need to feed tonight. He’s either going to have to let me do it from him, or not get mad if I go elsewhere. I wish I’d already taken care of this before I met him.” Janelle fiddled with her keys.

  “What?”

  “Well….” Janelle glanced at a car backing out of a parking spot in the lot next to our store. She pursed her lips, staring as it drove away. “There’s the fact he can shift into a cat.”

  “Is that a problem?” I asked. “I wouldn’t think that’d bother you.”

  “Ah… not really. It’s just… he can change into another form. I can’t even do that.”

  I hip-checked her. “Jealous?”

  “I can put a three-hundred-pound man down on the ground with one hand and not break a nail. What’s there to be jealous of?”

  “So that’s a yes, right?”

  Janelle patted my cheek. “You tell anyone and I’ll put you on the ground.”

  Laughing, I watched her drive off. In the ten years I’d been with them, neither had ever bitten me. I could see how that might be a problem for some. I shrugged. It wasn’t something I’d ever have to worry about now.

  I drove home, ate, and by ten thirty I found myself sitting alone on a Saturday night. I hadn’t done that in ages, but hooking up was no longer an option. Well, unless it happened to be with Heller, but I didn’t see that happening anytime soon. So instead I cleaned house.

  Yeah, some folks ate when stressed. I cleaned. Two hours later I’d emptied out the fridge, mopped the floor—now clean enough you could eat off—scrubbed down the cabinets, and rearranged the pantry.

  Flipping on the back porch light, I opened the back door and dragged two full trash bags outside. I made my way to the garbage cans that were on the other side of the garage. The night was cooler than I thought, and a strong breeze wasn’t helping matters. It was cold enough I wished I’d put on a jacket. I had no more dumped the bags in the cans when the hair on the back of my neck stood up.

  Slowly I scanned the area but didn’t see anything. Now I really wished I’d talked Marshell into putting floodlights on this side of the garage. The house lights just didn’t reach this far. If something that wasn’t human had its eye on me, then of course I wasn’t going to see it.

  I knew that, and it didn’t matter. I still frantically searched, even though I didn’t see anything. But I trusted my gut, and it said someone, or something, was out there in the woods around our house, watching me. Movement caught my eye in a tree at the far end of our lot.

  Suddenly brightly glowing yellowish-amber eyes stared at me from the not-too-distant tree line. Oh shit. A cold flush spread through my body. Yellow means werewolf, right? A low growl rolled across the land, the sound chilling.

  Right. Shit, shit, shit. What the hell is a werewolf doing here? It has to smell Janelle’s and Marshell’s scent. Unless it’s dumber than a sack of hair, it has to know it’s trespassing on another paranormal’s territory.

  Through the years I’d met other paranormals through Janelle or Marshell. Just like with nonparanormals, sometimes tempers flared and sounds were heard that weren’t quite normal. Or human. Like now. My pulse picked up.

  I had no idea why some damn paranormal felt the need to invade our property and growl at me. What was I going to do? Not run, that’s for damn sure. I wasn’t equipped to take on whatever was out there prowling around, eyeballing me. Running might be the first impulse, but I knew better.

  Marshell told me running triggered the hunting instinct, and not only with paranormals. The wind changed, and I caught the scent of wet dog. Aw, fuck me sideways, no doubt about it. That’s a wolf shifter. Like the yellowish eyes weren’t enough of a clue.

  My day officially sucked.

  I’d always heard wolves were assholes of the first order. Egotistical, aggressive, possessive—and those were their good traits. Another growl snapped my attention back to my visitor, who was slowly easing closer. What the hell was going on here?

  And heaven help me, I couldn’t come up a single good reason for one to be out here harassing my ass. That left bad reasons. If I didn’t do something, harassing might not be all it did. I grabbed the metal lid of one of the trashcans and a dead limb I’d stuck in the can.

  Let the fun begin.

  “Git! Git out of here! Shoo dog! Git!” I laid into the lid with the stick while hollering at the top of my lungs. The racket was mind-bending. “Go on! Get out of here! Beeeeeat it!”

  While it seemed like I’d lost my mind, I hadn’t. Marshell said the best thing to do when faced with a paranormal up to no good was to attract attention. Well, this one was up to no good. A low growl followed by a pained whine greeted me. Lucky for me most paranormals had really, really good hearing.

  I hoped I made the fucker’s ears bleed.

  We might be out in the middle of nowhere, but there was still a street with traffic going up and down
it, and we had neighbors. Not close, but we had them. If I could draw attention to myself…. I hoped it knew what I was doing.

  “Bad doggie! Bad! Get out of here, dammit.”

  A shape lunged from the darkness and my heart nearly popped out of my chest. I stopped yelling for a second, stunned. Yeah, they don’t like being called dogs. Ooops. But what was I supposed to do? Yell “go away werewolf”? That might get me more attention than I wanted.

  Snarling reminded me I had more pressing issues. A sickening dread filled me and my stomach threatened to heave. My head spun. Jesus God, every muscle in my body locked up. Which was probably the only reason I didn’t piss myself.

  The animal stopped several feet away, an impressive amount of teeth on display just for me. There was just enough light from the back porch and the moon for me to see it was indeed a wolf. I knew it was, yes I did, but seeing it was a whole nother thing.

  The light wasn’t strong enough for me to tell what color its coat was, but there was no doubt this wasn’t a normal wolf. It was much too big—another clue a paranormal was fucking with me for some reason. Well, that and the eerie, intelligent eyes.

  “What the hell, dude? You have to know there’s a couple of Vetalas living here.” So maybe I shouldn’t be yelling about stuff like that. “I’m under their protection. Are you trying to start something? What you’re doing could be taken as a threat.”

  The wolf growled at me even as it slowly backed away into the darkness.

  Lovely, this one had a flare for melodrama. Just my luck. As the night shadows reclaimed the wolf, a howl ripped through the night. Chill bumps raced over my skin. Wow, someone was mad. Furious.

  Jeez, that was straight-up anger driving that howl. I had no idea why the shifter was pissed or why it directed that at me. I’d never had any personal contact with wolves, as far as I knew. I watched it disappear.

  Well, now that the threat was no longer staring me in the eye, I had a bad case of the shakes. The sudden urge to cry hit me, and my knees went weak. I dropped the lid, the harsh metallic clang hitting the driveway sounded far away.

  I’d come too close to possibly being hurt, or maybe even killed, before I had a chance to explore this thing between Heller and me. And why was I standing out here? Damn if I was going to sit around waiting for a replay of the night’s adventure.

  No, I needed to get inside. No sooner than I locked the door, I sank down to the floor, unable to draw a deep breath. I clutched my chest as an endless parade of “what ifs” strolled through my mind.

  First one, then another tear trailed down my face. I lifted my hand and caught the wetness. I sniffed, then gulped, struggling for control. I’d just faced off against a werewolf with nothing more than a metal trashcan lid, a stick, and my big mouth.

  A sob broke from me and the floodgate opened. Tears raced down my face, leaving me choking helplessly. I buried my face in my hands as I gave in to the hideous fear. I had never been so scared. Not even when I found out about Marshell. But as much as I loved Janelle and her brother, that wasn’t what sent me into hysterics.

  There was a phone call I had to make.

  “WHAT?” MARSHELL yelled.

  I jerked the phone away from my ear. The fact I heard his voice even over the pounding music from whatever club he’d staked out was impressive. I quickly explained what had happened, and now was dealing with the fallout.

  “Are you okay? Tell me you’re okay!” Marshell demanded.

  “I’m….” I took a deep breath. “I’m okay.”

  “That’s it? Just you’re okay? How can you be so… so blasé?”

  I knew if I didn’t stay calm, Marshell would really freak out. That’s the last thing I wanted or needed. “I’m not being blasé, okay. I’m still shaking and my heart is pounding, but I’m okay. So you need to stay calm, especially since you’re where you are and surrounded by… folks not like you. Follow what I’m saying?”

  “Yes, dammit, I get it. Just… are you sure you’re okay?”

  “Come on, dude, I’d think I’d know if I—”

  “And—and… are you sure you saw what you thought you saw?” Marshell yelled again.

  I scowled at my cell. So much for him staying calm. “It had yellow eyes like a wolf. It walked like a wolf. It howled like a wolf. Yeah, I’m pretty certain it was a damn wolf.”

  “Oh… oh my goddess. Wait a minute. Did you say you used a stick to defend yourself? A stick? Lawson, what were you thinking?”

  “I was thinking that was all there was! If I thought I could’ve interested it in a game of fetch, I would have.” Now I was yelling. “Since it looked like it was more interested in using me as a chew toy, I though holding on to the stick might be a good idea.”

  “Are you in the house? Is it locked down?”

  Did he think I was completely stupid? “No, I’m on the back porch enjoying the night air. Jesus, Marshell, of course I’m inside with the doors locked.”

  “You keep your head down and wait for me. Do not do anything stupid. We’ll be there as soon as we can.”

  “We? Aw, shit, Marshell, there’s no need to call Janelle. Hello?” Well now, that was a dial tone buzzing in my ear. Marshell had hung up.

  Great. Time to batten down the hatches. Marshell was hard enough to deal with when he got upset, but Janelle? I called her Hurricane Janelle for a reason. She swept in and destroyed anything in her path that threatened the ones she loved.

  You might be able to reason with Marshell if he was in a killing mood. Janelle? Nope. She went for the jugular first. That was if she was feeling gracious. There was nothing to be done about it, so I put on coffee while I waited for them to show up.

  Time passed slowly, and I couldn’t help but keep an ear cocked for any strange sounds. So of course the house made all these odd creaking noises. I debated turning on the TV for background noise, but if sometime was going to sneak up on me, I wanted to hear it coming. I had no idea how much time passed, but finally I saw headlights in the drive. I got the coffee mugs down and got ready.

  “Lawson?” Janelle yelled as she opened the door.

  “Kitchen,” I yelled back. As it turned out, Janelle wasn’t alone.

  “Are you okay?” Janelle’s heels tapped loudly as she crossed the kitchen tile floor and hugged me quickly.

  I couldn’t help but wonder how Sam felt about that, but he’d have to get over it. She considered me a brother, even if we weren’t related by blood. Still she didn’t let the hug last long.

  “I’m in one piece.” I wasn’t sure how I felt about Sam coming with her, but as he was her mate, I shouldn’t be surprised he was here. “Please tell me you weren’t like that the whole way here.” I waved at her fangs and eyes.

  The fact she was showing the Vetala side of her nature without being attacked told me how scared she’d been for me.

  “She managed to hold out until we were in your drive,” Sam said.

  I was impressed. He didn’t seem frightened at all. He was her mate, true, but she looked intimidating.

  “Now what the devil happened?” Janelle fixed Sam a cup of coffee, then got herself one. They both sat at the table. “All Marshell said was a werewolf showed up here and stalked you.”

  “Well, that’s it in a nutshell.” I sat down at the kitchen table too. My legs were still shaking. “I was taking the trash out, and it came out of the darkness. It growled, lunged at me, and then backed off.”

  “It lunged at you?” Janelle swore softly.

  “Yeah, I wasn’t too happy with that either. I let it know I was aware it was a shifter and also told it about you two. I’m not sure what the point of the whole deal was except to scare the shit out of me. Which it succeeded at. In spades.”

  “I’m so sorry, sweetie.” Janelle’s speech was all growly and slurred thanks to the fangs. “Just as soon as Marshell gets here, we’re going out there to take a look.”

  “Are you sure there was only the one?” Sam asked.

  “That’s
all I saw.”

  “It sounds like a lone wolf,” Sam said. “I mean, if this were a pack deal, there’d have been more than one wolf out there, a lot more social protocol would have taken place, and….” Sam frowned. “They wouldn’t approach a human anyway, so this makes no sense.”

  “I don’t know any wolves, so I have no reason to think I’m on the bad side of one.” I sipped the coffee, finally noticing how cold I was. I shivered and then stood to turn the heat up a bit higher.

  Sam narrowed his eyes at me then stood. “I’ll be right back.”

  “Don’t go outside until Marshell gets here,” Janelle said. “I’d feel better if all three of us went out there together.”

  “No problem. I’m just stepping into the den for a second,” Sam said.

  Janelle glanced at me after Sam left. “If I find that wolf—”

  “You’re assuming all that was directed at me. I hate to say it, Janelle, but I’m not the threat here.”

  “That’s my point,” she hissed at me. “If this is aimed at me or Marshell, going after you is a sure bet. You don’t have claws or fangs or can shift or—”

  “Hey! I’ve been with you guys for ten years. You’ve taught me how to defend myself against the baddies out there. Look, if I have to, I’ll start carrying the knife like I used to.”

  “It might be for the best, for now.” Janelle cocked her head, and then seconds later the back door flew open.

  “Lawson!”

  “Marshell’s here.” Janelle winked at me.

  “So I heard.”

  “Dammit to hell and back, Lawson, a werewolf?” Marshell stomped over to the table, jerked me out of the chair, and hugged me tightly. Then I was subjected to a thorough going over.

  “I’m fine. Stop checking for wounds or whatever you’re doing.” I poked Marshell in the ribs to get him to back up some.

  “Stop that crap!” Marshell squeaked like a little girl. That certainly lightened my mood.

  Sam rejoined us, we all sat back down, and I went through the whole thing again.

  “So what did you get when you checked the area out?” Marshell asked Janelle.