Half Wolf (17 page)

“That’s convenient,” Rena remarked archly. “You just create a doorway and use it to avoid air travel. Anyone care to try their luck with this portal?”

Devlin offered Rena a dare. “I’d like to see you try.”

Michael was feeling sick to his stomach. This portal, doorway, veil, gave him the creeps, the way other things that hid in the shadows often did.

“How can you be sure about this?” He directed the question to Devlin.

“I can’t be sure of anything,” Devlin admitted. “Do any of you have a better explanation that we’d rather go with?”

The area fell silent, due to the fact that no one could come up with a better explanation for that bizarre anomaly. Rena, Michael noticed, did not advance on it, despite Dev’s dare.

“I wonder how long it will stay here,” Cade mused.

“Maybe we should get in touch with Kaitlin’s family. Maybe she should,” Rena suggested. “Her family would have to know about this. Right? If that thing is connected to her?”

“Yes,” Devlin was quick to say. “They would have to know. Fey don’t just happen, like a human bitten by a wolf and then becoming Were. You can’t accidentally become Fey. The stories say they can take human form if they want to and walk among us, but they are always Fey on the inside, and they carry those characteristics with them.”

“What characteristics?” Michael asked.

Devlin shook his head. “I suppose we’ll find out.”

The problem was, Michael thought, he had already seen some of what that Fey blood could do. It could leap over the rules governing the parameters of another species. It could bring a wolf to life in a person when a wolf wasn’t due, and make a woman shine with the light of a star, attracting the interest of both Weres and the undead.

It could very well be the reason Kaitlin seemed to be a vamp delicacy. And why he had noticed her in the first place. It was one answer to ponder, anyway.

“And so,” Rena said without looking at Michael, “we just happened to have given one of those creatures a little something extra to kick around in her system. I wonder how Dev’s Fey will appreciate that, not to mention any relatives Kaitlin might have over there.”

Devlin glanced from the spot between the trees to Michael. With a sober expression on his face, he said, “I’m thinking this can’t be good.”

Chapter 19

K
aitlin stirred on the soft surface, uncurling her body and opening her eyes. Details filled in swiftly this time. This was Michael’s house. His bedroom.

Lights were on. There were voices inside her head, threatening to drive her mad, and she couldn’t silence them. She heard her name spoken and covered her ears, trying to concentrate on something outside herself so she could make sense of things.

The room was a cool ocean blue, immaculately maintained and sparsely decorated. Michael’s taste ran to dark colors and carved oak furniture that he might have crafted for himself as a carpenter. By the looks of things, he was talented in his day job. She ran an appreciative hand over the headboard behind her.

Only one picture hung on the wall by the bed—a framed watercolor of hills and valleys similar to what she had seen in her visions. The reminder made her turn inward again to a place she didn’t want to go...and to what had transpired between Michael and herself—the cause of the aches she felt each time she moved.

She hurt all over. Every bone pulsed, as if each of them had been broken and too quickly mended. And she knew why. She had lost her shape tonight. She’d lost Kaitlin, for a time, and without fading away completely had returned to have mind-blowing sex with Michael.

The growl she felt rising wasn’t her stomach calling for fuel; it was a sound that got stuck in her throat—a response to the aftermath of having real sex for the first time. They had shared a kind of intimacy that affects the soul, and she had become a wolf when she wasn’t supposed to.

Full-on sex.

Full-on wolf.

Heaven help me.

The fact that this room smelled like Michael made all those recollections worse. His delicious masculine scent filled the air and clung to the pillow, making her want to accept being like him. Making her consider stopping the fight against the aftereffects of a crazy major body realignment that seemed impossible, but obviously wasn’t.

She was alive. She was here, and Michael had seen to that. He truly was her guardian angel in a world that had tilted off balance. He was a beast with a heart.

“My guardian Were.”

Speaking felt strange. Her throat was raw on the inside.

She studied her hands. Her fingers were fingers. Not paws. Her face felt like her face when she examined it, with no elongated muzzle. Arms, legs, were all there and looking human. Between her legs a deep-seated soreness pulsed that had nothing to do with being a wolf and everything to do with Michael’s talent as a lover.

She remembered it all, though the wink of a reality-check light warned that she wasn’t fully ready for any of this.

She didn’t look forward to finding out what the needling insistence in the back of her mind might be—that urge to find those hills and valleys she had seen images of.

She sat up.

Michael’s voice lingered in her mind like an echo, but so did those other voices she could not place. One thing was for sure. She had kissed
normal
goodbye in a really big way, and there were consequences for that.

The creak of floorboards focused her attention on what might lie on the other side of the closed bedroom door. Was this a house? An apartment? Did Michael live here alone? She wondered who else might come through that doorway.

She didn’t know much about Michael. Not even his last name. The other time she had been here was only a vague recollection. She didn’t remember much about how she had gotten here tonight. Her mind was overtaxed and sluggish. She now swore she heard muffled voices when a search of the room proved she was alone.

Had someone whispered her name?

Chills began to ice her skin...skin covered by an unfamiliar, shapeless T-shirt dipped in Michael’s scent. His smell contained male pheromones that made her feel braver than she actually was.

She got up, searched for the rest of her clothes on chairs and the floor without finding them, wondering if Michael had brought her from the park bare-ass naked.

Damn it. She was sure she heard her name this time, and glanced to the door to see the knob turn. When that door opened, she sat down on the bed, waiting for the next ax to fall.

A figure stood in the doorway, backlit by a light in the hallway that didn’t allow her to see anything other than that person’s silhouette. The tall, slender outline could have belonged to either male or female. The newcomer didn’t speak.

“Who are you?” Kaitlin’s overworked nerves fired up another warning.

Although the windows in Michael’s room were closed, a breeze ruffled Kaitlin’s tangled hair. The back of her neck began to tingle. She hoped to God this wasn’t a type of vampire her senses didn’t fully comprehend yet. Some bloodsucker sneaking under the radar when Michael had told her his place was safe.

“Answer me, please,” she insisted. “I’ve had enough surprises tonight to last me a lifetime.”

It was clear by then that whoever this was wanted to remain an enigma, and that seemed ominous.

“Damn it. Speak up, or get the hell out.”

The vehemence in her tone didn’t scare the person whose features were hidden from her. Kaitlin felt the coolness of this person’s attention. The light behind him or her got brighter the longer that maddeningly mute person stood there.

“Then get out,” she said, hoping this intruder would obey without a fuss, since she had exceeded her tolerance level by miles and didn’t have the energy or know-how to back up a threat.

The figure in the doorway complied with her demand by backing up. Her visitor then disappeared without closing the door. Kaitlin was on her feet before her next ten heartbeats had pounded out a further warning, and chasing after whoever it was.

* * *

Michael’s head came up. Kaitlin was moving, and sending warm vibes up and down his spinal column. He couldn’t concentrate on that at the moment, though.

Devlin sidled over to him and lowered his voice. “The awkward thing about a veil like this one is that the passage leads both ways.”

Michael stiffened. “You mean other things can access it to come here?”

Don’t you dare leave
, he sent to Kaitlin, picturing her wandering through the rooms in his cottage.

He addressed the next question to Devlin as if they all truly believed Dev’s monologue about suddenly appearing shimmering veils being a bridge between worlds.

“Who would come out of there, if the Fey did cross over?”

“I’ve never seen one of them,” Dev admitted.

“Then you don’t actually know they exist,” Rena argued. “Aside from your comments about stories having a basis in reality.”

“If they don’t, we’re back to trying to decide what that thing is,” Dylan pointed out.

“So, do we sit here and guard our park from what might come out of there, or get some much-needed rest?” Cade asked. “Say the word, Michael.”

“I’ll stay,” Michael volunteered. “The rest of you can go home. Some of you have nine-to-fives and will be on your feet again before you want to, and tomorrow brings us not only closer to a mad Were and his henchmen, but also one step closer to the full moon.”

He perceived Dylan’s discomfort with that reminder of Chavez being at his nastiest as a werewolf under a full moon. As the pack exchanged looks, Michael weighed his options. He would get home as soon as the sun rose to check on Kaitlin. At most, there were two more hours until the new day dawned.

In their favor was the fact that few vampires chanced being caught above ground with a margin that narrow. And Tory and Adam were monitoring the location they believed might be Chavez’s temporary digs for signs of trespassing Weres coming and going. In terms of concern, that just left this freaky portal to the Fey as a potential problem. Vamps and Weres were at least partially predictable. Who the hell knew what the Faerie folk could do?

He was tired. Spent. And he was facing another strange anomaly in a night overflowing with them.

“Dylan,” he said. “Cade will show you how to get to my house. Make yourself at home. There’s food in the kitchen and blankets in the closet. I have one favor to ask of you.”

“Ask,” Dylan said.

“Will you stay close to Kaitlin until daybreak? I’ll be back by then. We probably won’t be able to see this thing after the sun comes up anyway.”

He waved at the spot that stubbornly refused to disappear, and looked to Devlin. “If it’s here tomorrow, what will it look like?”

“Not sure, boss.”

“Oh, goody,” Rena said. “That thing might pick up the sunlight and be invisible?”

Devlin shrugged. “You now know all I know about it.”

Which wasn’t very much, Michael thought. He considered the ramifications of there being another species with the power to create a doorway in and out of the damn park he was supposed to patrol. And that species might believe Kaitlin to be one of their own.

He eyed the curtain.

Was this to be a Fey rescue mission? Was he nuts for believing Dev, and his own eyes?

“Seriously?” he said to Dev. “You don’t know anything else?”

Devlin shook his head.

It was nothing really to go by. Not enough to bring enlightenment. The word
Fey
conjured no images in Michael’s mind, other than the one Devlin had opposed about tiny beings with wings. He worried that Rena would start calling Kaitlin Tink.

“Would these creatures be angry about Kaitlin’s change?” Michael asked, not really expecting an answer.

“They rarely mess with humans, though there are a few tales about wayward Fey mating with people. Those human-Fey hybrids are supposedly outcasts shunned by the rest.”

“Meaning that they might not be too happy about Kaitlin being part wolf,” Rena suggested.

Michael needed time to think on his own, without the others being part of the process. He hadn’t been alone since first meeting Kaitlin near this very place a few days ago. His thoughts had been filled with nothing but her since then. His body missed hers. He could hardly keep focused on other things. But both Kaitlin and his pack were quite possibly in jeopardy from a nebulous new direction that no one could actually pinpoint.

Was there another world behind that ebony spot?

The thought that came to him now was that if these Fey creatures shunned hybrids, maybe Kaitlin would be all right. Wolf aside, maybe the reason she had been a college student was due to the fact that Kaitlin had been another kind of hybrid to begin with. Possibly she had been one of those human-Fey beings Dev said the Fey didn’t accept.

It could be that these Fey creatures had merely come here to see what was going on, and would eventually leave everyone alone. If Kaitlin wasn’t like them, they might leave her to him.

He was all for that.

His attitude had gone way beyond possessive. Plus, he wasn’t sure what happened to imprinted pairs if one was taken away, or even if one could leave such a pairing. Under dire circumstances, did imprinting reverse? After his mother had been killed by hunters, his father had never chosen another mate.

Cade nodded to Michael and turned away, heading toward the street and Michael’s house. The big Were paused near the far grove of trees to wait for Dylan, giving the two Lycans some private space.

“He’s a good Were,” Dylan said, looking after Cade.

Michael nodded. “The world would probably be astounded to learn that young Viking banker Cade Willis has a very private life after hours.”

“And that Dylan Landau, a Miami attorney by day, hails from one of the largest packs in the East,” Dylan said.

“Yes,” Michael agreed, thinking that both Weres managed their secrets well.

Rena reluctantly followed Cade, glancing at Michael over her shoulder every few steps to make sure he wasn’t going to call them back. He had no intention of doing so.

“Would you like me to wait with you?” Dylan asked, eyeing the sparkling anomaly beside them.

“No. Thanks. If anything comes out of there, I’ll let you know.”

When Dylan didn’t move, Michael sensed that the Lycan had more to say.

“Speak,” Michael said.

“I have a feeling that something already has come out of there.”

Michael said in agreement, “I think so, too.”

“So, you’re hoping to catch this visitor?”

“I’m hoping that whoever or whatever that visitor is doesn’t try to take Kaitlin back with them when they go home.”

“You have imprinted with Kaitlin,” Dylan noted.

“It seems that I have.”

After letting that comment settle, Dylan spoke again. “I’ll watch over her until you return.”

“You have my gratitude for that, Dylan. I owe you one.”

Dylan said, “Maybe I’ll call in that chip someday,” as he headed toward Cade.

Alone at last, Michael turned his attention back to the possibility of the female he had bonded with being taken away to a place he could not access...and to Kaitlin’s having a bloodline that possibly either predated or ran parallel to his own.

No longer a full-blooded Fey—if Fey was what Kaitlin turned out to be—would Kaitlin’s species shun her?

The growl that bubbled up from his chest was a menacing warning for all intruders to keep off his turf. To his complete dismay, that growl was answered by a sound that was twice as deadly.

Sensing movement, smelling trouble, Michael whipped around to fix his attention on the area where the sound had come from. His wolf vision picked up two Weres coming his way, some distance from where he stood.

They were moving fast. One of them came in from his right side. The other unwelcome newcomer circled to his left as if the two were part of a hunting pack that had found viable prey. Their scent was feral and more animal than human, though they appeared to be human now. The area picked up the stink of raw, misplaced animosity directed at him.

“You’re trespassing,” Michael called out, readying for what might happen next and guessing these were two more of the rogues the creep named Chavez had created with a savage bite or two.

“Obviously no one has taught you the fine art of manners,” he added.

As they approached, the beast on his right spoke in a harsh, gravelly voice that indicated a recent injury by way of a blow to the throat. “We don’t need manners or ruffled shirts to be able to hunt wherever we like.”