Miami Days and Truscan (24 page)

“You’re going to kill me yet, Tess. I swear you are,” he said as he opened the car door and headed to the back entrance. “Don’t wait for an invitation; you know where your room is.”

Yes, I did, and the bathroom and shower drew me like a magnet. Endless hot water. I almost salivated at the thought.

First, though—I turned and flipped the lock. It wasn’t that Carlos was rude or thoughtless or would habitually just charge into a guest’s room without knocking, but I wasn’t exactly an ordinary guest; he was an early riser by habit, and I had him so on edge at the moment that he might not even sleep tonight at all. I looked at Dalph, who’d been uncharacteristically quiet on the ride here, which was probably a good thing. He was pacing now, though, restlessly moving around the room. I went over to my chest-of-drawers and grabbed a fresh sleep shirt, noting that Carlos had left everything in this room exactly as I had left it, and had further apparently brought some things here from my own apartment, which meant he’d probably handled closing it down. What was that I’d realized earlier tonight? I didn’t know men very well at all and I had so misjudged Carlos on so many things.

“Dalph, I’m sorry. I know it hurts, but you absolutely can’t just run free in Coral Gables. Please try and settle down while I take a shower. And then we’re going to
sleep
, I’ve never wanted to sleep more, I don’t think.”

He raised a quizzical expression toward me. Of course. “A shower’s sort of an American bath. I’ll show you in the morning, you’ll love it. Now, please settle down.”

I stood under the hot water for a long time, soaking it in, and washed my hair three times and when I’d finished, I came out to find Dalph still pacing, but there wasn’t much I could do about that.

I got in the bed and patted the covers. “You
have
to stop pacing, you’re driving me crazy!”

He jumped up and whined.

“Dalph, I have talked tonight till I’m blue in the face, first to you and then to Carlos and now back to you, and I absolutely can’t talk anymore tonight. Go to sleep.” I reached over and kissed his muzzle, fell back on the pillow, and knew no more till the first tinges of light began to faintly glow through the window glass. I felt Dalph’s arms around me. I stirred and they tightened; he was lying on the covers. I rose up and glanced over. So that’s what happened; clothes magically morphed into fur along with the flesh, and then came back. I’d wondered about that. I’d have to check the stock of clothes we kept for the guests; he couldn’t walk around like that in Miami. For one thing, he’d die of heat exhaustion.

“Hey,” I whispered.

“Good morning, my Queen.”

“Are you all right?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

“You’re a man.”

He laughed softly. “Tess, you always amaze me. As you so precisely pointed out last night, you don’t know men very well. Or maybe you know men, as a general rule, but you’re very bad, not to mention very slow, at figuring out a particular man. I didn’t expect to like your Carlos, nor did I want to, but I do in spite of myself. Any man who cares for his people as he obviously does—”

“I can’t believe he still had boats out two months later.”

“What is it that we’re here for, Tess?”

“I don’t want to say yet. I want to tell Carlos the whole thing, including your last visions, and see if he thinks what I think. So you
can
understand everything when you’re in wolf form and you remember it after? I was worried about that, if maybe brain function changed or something—”

“No, we hear, we remember. And while I did know how much you love me, it would be nice for you to tell me when I’m in human form and able to do something about it.”

“Promise. Now, get up, I’ll show you the shower and how it works. I’m surprised Carlos isn’t knocking the door down already.”

That must have been his cue, because at that exact moment, I heard the doorknob rattle, very grateful that I’d had the foresight to lock it.

“Tess!” Impatient rapping. “I can’t
believe
you locked me out, what’s the
matter
with you?”

“Stand where you are,” I said quietly to Dalph, who was standing behind me. “It’s show time.”

I walked over to the door and opened it in mid-knock. Carlos was staring directly at me, and then I saw his gaze move behind me. His eyes widened as they locked on Dalph.

“Carlos, this is my husband, Dalph. More properly, Randalph of Trusca.”

Dalph walked forward. I didn’t know if he was going to extend his hand or not; Truscans didn’t shake hands, and he didn’t, which I thought was probably a good thing as I didn’t think Carlos would be capable of movement. Dalph spoke instead.

“I apologize for any alarm my appearance might have caused you last night. And Tess and I are very grateful for your help.”

Carlos remained standing, immobile, not speaking, which was rather a novel thing to see. Then he looked back at me, and in the Ricky Ricardo accent that he could imitate to perfection but seldom used, he said, “Lucy, you gotta lotta ’splaining to do.” Then he turned on his heel and headed back down the hall.

Chapter Twenty-Three

“Well,” I said, closing the door, “that went much better than I expected.”

“Be gentle with him, my Queen. He’s very shaken, and he cares much more for you than you realized, as do you for him, though I already knew that.”

“Excuse me?”

“I even told you that it would be impossible for you to be with a man you didn’t care deeply about, even love, Tess. That’s no surprise to me. You don’t like to be vulnerable, so you don’t admit to yourself that you care. And you never believed he cares as much as he does.”

“You know, you’d be a great psychiatrist if you were born here.”

“A what?”

“Never mind. And that doesn’t bother you—that he cares more for me than I knew?”

“No. I know we’re soul-mates, Tess. It bothers me that I have to be here, in his house, and make him uncomfortable. But Johnny survived a number of years. I think Carlos can last a few days.”

“What’s Johnny got to do with it?”

“Johnny was hopelessly in love with my mother. He has no idea I know. My mother never did, the four of us and our father took all her attention. My father did know, I’m sure, there are some things men just know, despite how insensitive women think us, and the fact that another man’s in love with your wife is one of them. But Johnny was a valuable man, a good friend, and having no death wish, never gave my father any reason for concern. I’m assuming, as Carlos runs the equivalent of an empire here in this world, that he’s smart enough not to have a death wish either.”

“Is that a threat?”

“I’ve been told I’m fairly intimidating. In fact, I only remember one person in my entire life who’s ever thrown wine in my face or told me they didn’t give a flying flip about my opinion. Although Dal has thrown up on me on quite a few occasions.”

The comment struck and surprised me. “You mean you actually
physically
took care of Dal yourself when he was a baby? When you were what, in your early twenties?”

“Whenever I could. Not as often as I’d have liked. I was a young and untried king and things were very hectic and unsettled. His mother died at his birth, you know that, and would have had no interest in him in any event, which should come as no surprise to you. But even babies know the difference between a caretaker and a parent. I certainly didn’t intend that my son should not.”

I reached up and kissed him quickly. “You are absolutely amazing. But you still don’t intimidate me.”

“Which surprises me not at all. Show me your—shower?—was it? It’s rude to keep the man waiting.”

“You’ll love it. And I’ll go ransack you some clothes.”

“From where?”

“Ramos International entertains a lot. And almost nobody realizes how casual or how hot Miami is. Trust me, we’ve got a stash of clothes.”

Dalph adored the shower. Who wouldn’t? I left him standing and luxuriating in the endless stream of hot water and pulled on shorts and a T-shirt. Then I dashed over to one of the guest rooms where I stored casual clothes and pulled out a pair of white linen pants, probably too short—but who the hell was as tall as Dalph?—and grabbed a sapphire blue silk polo shirt. The clothes I bought to keep on hand for idiots who came to Miami in light wool suits were always ones that simply came in small, medium and large, and I always kept extra and extra-extra large, too, because desk men had a tendency not to work out much. I thought Dalph would only need large pants, and I was right, but I was grateful I’d actually stocked some 3X T-shirts, even though Carlos said that was ridiculous, because nobody was that fat. I overrode his objection, because we did have some guests who were that fat. But of course, in Dalph’s case, he needed 3X to accommodate his shoulders and muscles and still have room to breathe.

“Awesome!” I exclaimed over the end result. “You look very Miami.”

“I look very shoeless. As do you, and your legs look very bare.”

“This is
Miami
, honey, go with the flow. Ready?”

“Remember, be
gentle
.”

“Why do you keep telling me that?”

“Because, Green Eyes, you’re a
bitch
when you’re nervous. And you’re nervous as
hell
. And don’t skip over what happened to your pilot like you did last night. Tell him the truth.”

“Why?”

“I’d like to see his reaction.”

“Is this a macho test or something?”

“Something like that, yes. The ability to analyze an impossible situation and accept the only solution, no matter how unpleasant. It’s a leader’s most valuable gift. I’d like to know if he has it.”

I smelled coffee as we neared the kitchen, but no food, which somewhat surprised me, and found Carlos sitting at the kitchen table, sipping on what I knew was probably his fourth or fifth cup of coffee.

“No breakfast?” I asked. Carlos was a big breakfast eater, as he was frequently in such a hurry through the day that he didn’t stop to eat.

“Rosa has the week off. I was
supposed
to leave for New York yesterday morning, it fell through. I was hoping you’d cook breakfast, unless you want to eat my eggs.”

“Not likely,” I said and, moving to the big walk-in refrigerator, gathered up eggs and bacon and butter. The stones were
really
looking after us; I couldn’t imagine what I’d have done if he’d been out of town.

“Can you maybe start talking while you cook, you think?”

Mindful of Dalph’s admonition, I was fully aware that he was absolutely right. I was a bitch when I was nervous and I was way past nervous. I sighed. “I’ll try. It’s just that I don’t know quite where to start, I truly don’t. Do you believe me now? I mean, about the door, and Trusca and Pria?”

Carlos gestured toward Dalph with his hand. “Duh!” Then he addressed Dalph directly. “Does that happen every night? Doesn’t it make things a little awkward?”

“Carlos!”

Dalph, however, took the question in stride. “No, just during the full moons.”

“Perfect. And you’re not telling me he learned how to speak English like that in the two months you’ve been gone, either.”

“No, of course not. His mother was American. I’m not the first person to disappear in the Triangle, you know!”

“Well, this just keeps getting better and better.”

“It all started with the mist,” I began, before the sequence of events got completely out of order, and I talked while I turned bacon and scrambled eggs. I talked right up until we actually crashed, and then attempted to comply with Dalph’s request, but it was hard. Carlos had never been a soldier and had never encountered such creatures as the Prians.

“And actually,” I continued, “Ken didn’t die in the crash, though he would have pretty quickly. His ribcage was crushed and he was bleeding from his lungs, I knew it by the color of the blood frothing out of his mouth. And Johnny checked and he told me that, too, and then Dalph checked him, and I didn’t know Dalph spoke English, you see, and there wasn’t a whole lot of time to make introductions, and anyway, Dalph asked Johnny something—how badly was he hurt, I guess—and Johnny answered, and Dalph—” I stopped, aware that I was trying so hard to convey the urgency of the situation that I was dangerously close to making no sense.

Dalph picked up for me. “A Prian border patrol was right behind me. The Prians are flesh-eaters.”

“Flesh-eaters?”

“Cannibals,” I interjected. “They eat people.”

“For
real
?”

“For very real.”

Dalph spoke again. “I checked his injuries myself. Moving him at all was going to kill him. Leaving him was out of the question. I snapped his neck and fired the plane. His funeral pyre.”

I looked at Carlos looking at Dalph. It must have been a guy thing and apparently, male bonding could happen under the strangest circumstances.

“Thank you. He was a good man.”

“Good men deserve no less.”

“And thank you for getting Tess out of there.”