Object of My Affection (14 page)

“You could have at least turned around,” I said.

Shawn was over six feet tall and around two hundred pounds. Lucky for me the chair had wheels. I pushed him into the corner underneath the cabinets and bumped his head in the process. I winced when he smacked the cabinet door.

“No worries,” Bade said. “It’s not like he’s going to feel it.”

I gave him a dirty look as I sat on top of the desk.

“This guy wasn’t your friend was he?”

He opened the first aid kit beside me while he spoke.

“No. But he didn’t deserve to be mutilated.”

“Very few people actually deserve such things,” he said.

“You need help with that?” he pointed at my arm.

“No, I’ve got it.”

I raised up what was left of my sleeve and began to unstrap the blade over my forearm. I had taken much less damage because of the protection the blade sheath had provided. My arms were small enough that it had covered the entire top of my arm. The only injuries I’d sustained were some deep punctures where the werewolf’s teeth had wrapped over the blade and into my skin. To my surprise, the weapon wasn’t even damaged. Had it not been for Alfred’s gift, I might have had my arm ripped off.

I took out some gauze and disinfectant and began to clean the wound while Bade turned back to face the guard.

“You still looking for a sample of my blood?” I asked sarcastically.

Bade didn’t respond. To my horror, he had lifted the rain coat I’d placed over Shawn and was inspecting the body.

“That’s gotta suck,” he commented.

“What?”

“Looks like someone’s cut off his dick.”

Bade had just confirmed what I was afraid of when I’d first seen the body. I didn’t comment.

“I can understand whacking the guard. That makes sense if your gonna break into the building.” He looked puzzled.

“But why cut off the poor guy’s dick?”

“Your guess is as good as mine.”

I continued patching up my arm and tried not to look at the dead body of someone I was used to seeing with a smile.

“He must have really pissed someone off.” Bade grinned.

I looked up from my arm. “You’re a sick mother fucker.”

He just smiled and re-covered the body.

Bade covered the space that separated us with one step and taped up the large bandages while I held them in place.

“How did we go from trying to kill each other to this?” I wondered out loud.

“How did you go from being Marco’s enemy to spending the week with him?” he asked.

I froze. Bade’s cool blue eyes gave no indication of what he might have been thinking as I responded hesitantly, “You knew about that?”

“Everything with fur knows about that.”

I sighed. “I have no idea. But when I figure it out, it’ll still be none of your business.”

“I know this wolf,” he nodded toward the head on the floor.

“And you just now mention this?”

“Her name is Jenna,” he looked me in the eye again, “and she’s one of Marco’s.”

“Great.”

When I stood up Bade had no place else to go, so he stood his ground and our bodies pressed together in what should have been an awkward moment. But it wasn’t. It seemed natural that we should touch, and in no way sexual. Casual physical contact was a natural thing for werewolves and the more I was near them, the more comfortable I became with it. Truthfully, I’d always liked to be casually touched. But the fact that full frontal contact with Bade didn’t bother me ...

bothered me.

We decided to take the stairs. Once I opened the door again to the security office, the stair case was just a few steps away. I closed the door on Shawn and tried not to think about what method might have been used to mutilate his genitalia.

Bade took the head with us and it dripped blood all the way up the steps to the second floor. When we reached the entrance to the next floor I turned to him.

“You don’t think David Kane is involved in this do you?”

“I don’t know, but I doubt it. Why?”

“Because if he is, I’ll have to kill him.”

“Your friend, he works here?”

“Yes. He’s a professor in the science department. His office is just around the corner.”

“You’re planning to just walk into his office?”

“What choice do I have? I have no idea where he called me from except that he was here.”

Bade indicated that I should lead the way. I opened the door and looked around. No one was in sight.

“I’m going to check his lab first,” I whispered.

The second story floor is completely tile. When Bade moved to follow me he slipped and nearly fell in the puddle of blood that had collected around his feet in the few minutes we had stood by the door.

“Shit,” he growled. “Why are we whispering?”

“I don’t want anyone to know we’re here if they haven’t already heard us.”

“I think they’ll figure it out when they see the blood,” he indicated the trail the severed head had left behind us.

“Ah, screw it. You stay here and I’ll check the lab,” I said.

Bade nodded his agreement and I left him around the corner by the stairs.

I started toward Richard’s lab. It was down the hall, past his office, and to the left. As I reached the halfway point in the hall I saw Mallory Monroe coming from the direction of Richard’s lab. If she didn’t know what was going on, I wasn’t about to tell her. She often worked late, and there was the possibility that she was clueless as to what was going on around her.

As I was about walk past her she shoved me. I staggered back a few paces and just looked at her. She sneered in response. Mallory Monroe had to be one of the ugliest women I’d ever seen. She was six feet tall and built like a refrigerator with appendages. If it weren’t for her large breasts, I’d have sworn she was a man.

Her square chin jutted out as she spat, “Filthy whore.”

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me.”

“Yeah, I heard you. But what the hell are you talking about?”

“You don’t deserve him.”

“Who? What the hell are you talking about?”

Mallory put her hands on her hips and glared at me. She was really starting to piss me off.

“That stupid routine won’t work with me,” she sneered nastily, “you’re not blond enough to pull it off.”

“Well, you’re a brunette, so what’s your excuse?” I grinned.

I really should have kept that comment to myself, but I couldn’t seem to help it. Oh, that set her off.

“I’m talking about Marco Barak.”

That got my attention. How the hell did she know anything about Marco?

“You’re a werewolf?”

“Isn’t it obvious?”

“Well ... no.”

It was then that Mallory stopped trying to camouflage the otherworldly feel of her werewolf self and I felt her power spill over me. Not only was Mallory a werewolf, but from the taste of her power, she was alpha. It takes a great deal of control to cover up power like that. Mostly, the ones who are that powerful have the control needed to mask their power.

Occasionally you come across what I call berserkers—

werewolves of extreme power, but not enough control to mask what they are. Berserkers are animals in the truest sense of the word.

But then again, most people can’t sense werewolves, so they’d never know the difference unless they saw them turn.

And even if they did feel that something was wrong, they wouldn’t know what it was. Most of the Hunters I’d worked with couldn’t sense if someone was a werewolf, they just went by how they behaved. But such research was not necessary with me, I could smell them. Of course, I kept that quite. There was no need for people to know that I was half wolf. Alfred didn’t even realize the full extent of what had happened to me. My father knew. He could sense them also, but in a different way.

Jacob Mercury was psychic to a great extent, but nothing to compare to a full blooded wizard. He just
knew
whether or not someone was infected with lycanthropy. He could feel it when he was near them. My father couldn’t see the future, or make rain fall from a clear sky. But, there were some things he just instinctively knew. I thought he might be a Visionary, a psychic with the ability to see auras. He just kept it to himself.

In the moment that Mallory revealed her power to me, I knew what the fuss was all about.

“Where’s Richard?” I asked.

“He’s still alive,” she said.

“That’s not what I asked.”

When she just glared at me, I continued, “So you started all of those rumors just to discredit me.” It wasn’t a question.

“Yes.”

“And poor Richard and his reputation were just caught in the crossfire.” I shook my head. “You’re a vicious bitch, Mallory.”

She snarled, “I hated Julie. I won’t lie, I was glad when I heard you’d killed her. But I’m not about to be led by another skinny little bitch like you.”

Julie was Marco’s former alpha female, and I’d killed her a few months ago. She had helped Bade to kidnap Elijah and me. If you ask me, the bitch had it coming.

“I haven’t accepted Marco’s offer.”

“Maybe not, but it’s only a matter of time. I saw the way that you marked him.”

“Marked him?”

She growled, “Don’t pretend you don’t know what you did!

All those claw marks down his arms! The bite mark near his throat! I’m not stupid, those were not self inflicted wounds.”

With those words Mallory succeeded in bringing to mind images that I’d been trying to forget. Even with an angry werewolf staring me in the face I was bombarded with vivid recollections of Marco crawling toward me through the hot soapy water of his large garden tub. I could still feel him, his hot skin burning into me through the wet silk. My heart fluttered, and I was possessed with the wicked notion to provoke Mallory.

“You’re right. They weren’t. But I’ve got news for you, even with me out of the way, you still wouldn’t be in charge.”

“And how do you figure that? With you out of the way, I’d be the strongest and most likely candidate.”

“Marco wouldn’t touch you with borrowed hands.” I smiled.

She growled, a deep and threatening sound that was not at all human. I watched as her hands began to change. The bones lengthened with a grotesque popping sound, breaking and reforming into massive claws.

Behind me I heard footsteps and knew that Bade was approaching.

“I wouldn’t do that Mallory,” he called.

It sounded like Bade was about halfway up the hall, but I wasn’t about to turn my back on Mallory to find out. If I had to have one of them at my back, I realized with a shock that I preferred it to be Bade.

“What are you doing here?” her inhuman voice asked.

The look of hatred on her face was unmistakable. If I had to guess, I’d say she hated Bade even more than she hated me.

“See, our pal here hates me because I wouldn’t do her either.” He gestured toward Mallory and she roared.

“Liar! I wouldn’t touch you.”

“Don’t believe her.” Bade smiled at me. He remained incredibly calm, as if there was not an angry werewolf transforming before us in the hallway.

“I hurt her feelings. She’s hated me ever since. Marco, on the other hand, was a bit more kind in his refusal, and she’s held on to some hope that she could weasel her way into his pants.”

For a minute I thought she was going to jump him, but then Mallory noticed the jacket in his hand. If it were me, I would not have wanted to know what was tied inside the jacket that had dripped a bloody trail up the hall and was forming a pool beside Bade’s large black boots.

“What’s in there?” she asked, gesturing with one of her clawed hands toward the bloody baggage he was carrying.

Without preamble, Bade gave the coat a jerk and the severed werewolf head flopped onto the tile floor facing Mallory.

“Jenna,” she gasped. “You bastards,
you’ll die for this
.”

Just then Bade and I both noticed what had fallen out of Jenna’s mouth as her head hit the floor. Lying there in a puddle of blood was a severed penis.

I covered my mouth to prevent myself from retching on the head. It’s best not to heave in front of the bad guys.

Bade, on the other hand, had no such discretion.

“Son of a bitch,” he said disgustedly. “I knew you guys were desperate, but did you really have to resort to biting the peckers off security guards to get a little head?”

“That womanizing prick had it coming to him,”
she growled vehemently.

“Womanizing? That mean he was doing everyone but you?” Bade grinned sarcastically.

With a mighty roar Mallory Monroe shed her skin in a violent effort to reach Bade. It looked as if an angry beast was clawing its way out of her human shell. I’d never seen such a violent transformation. Don’t get me wrong, it’s always violent, but not that bad. Her remaining skin fell to the floor and she lunged at Bade in her half wolf form. By the end of the night, she would be forced to become completely wolf, if she lived that long.

Bade grabbed both sides of her head in mid air and flung her by the ears into the nearby wall. The bricks cracked with the force and pieces of concrete crumbled and fell into her dark brunette fur.

She got up slowly, shaking her head as if to be sure it was still attached. I heard the sound of bones cracking and clothing tearing behind me and decided not to look at Bade while he turned. I remembered what Sam had said about watching someone I know change and I didn’t want to go there.

I wasn’t attached to Bade in any way, but seeing a beautiful man turn into a beast would not be a pleasant experience. As Mallory rose to her full height before me, I estimated her to be close to seven feet in half wolf form.

I extended the blades from both my forearms and braced myself for her attack when a large clawed hand wrapped around me from behind. I looked down at the werewolf hand that rested on my breast and glared at Bade. His fur was the same color as his ethereal golden hair and his eyes remained that frightening pale blue. He was the only werewolf I’d ever seen other than Sam whose eyes did not become amber with the transformation.

“Now is not the time to cop a feel,” I said.

“Let me handle this.” His voice sounded almost human still, but deeper and much more frightening.