Shifter (18 page)

“Are you sure?” I ask unable to believe he is actually asking me out.

“I am,” he says, seriously.

“Um…okay.”

“Really?” he asks, instantly perking up at my acceptance. I have to smile at the broad smile on his lips. He looks as if he is as child being told he is getting to go to Disney Land for the first time. I almost laugh at him.

“Yes, I’ll go,” I say reassuringly.

“Great. I have your number. I will call you soon. I promise,” he says as he goes to the door. When he opens it, two of his fellow officers are standing right at the entrance. They’ve obviously been listening in on our conversation. I blush in embarrassment, but Officer Richards gives them an angry look and orders them down the street.

“Well, how about that. My sister is going to die when I tell her this,” I say in a low voice, closing the door on the men.

Chapter 17

~~~Dimitri~~~

While Abby talked to the police, Devan and I had our own conversation.

“Devan, can you hear me?” I ask, when he made himself known.

“Yeah, little brother, I can hear you,” he answers, not looking in my direction. He sounds tired.

“Oh man, thank God. I’ve tried talking to you every single time you’ve showed up here.”

“Why haven’t I been able to hear you?”

“I don’t know. It has something to do with the spell. Have you found Mave yet?”

“No. Hey, hold on a second all right. I need to get out of ear shot of Abby and Richards.”

Devan was trying to talk to me and listen to them at the same time and it apparently wasn’t working.

“That cat is getting huge,” Richards says, nodding his head to me as I try to maneuver my large body into the window that faces the front yard. Devan has stepped back down the drive way and this is the easiest place for me to see him. Unfortunately, I’m a bit too large to fit on the windowsill comfortably.

“Man, she is beyond pissed at you,” I say when I get myself positioned comfortably. We are no longer face-to-face, but I can see him through the window. None of this effects how well we can hear each other. As long as he stays relatively close to me, we can speak perfectly telepathically.

“Can you blame her?” he asks.

“Oh no. You really screwed the pooch on this one.” There is a tad too much glee in my voice when I say this. He takes it as a jab at him, which is great. He would never forgive me if he knew I am planning to make a move on her when I am human again.

“I know. I could have handled the entire thing better, but how was I supposed to know what had happened to you?”

He paces back and forth in front of the window as we speak, giving the rest the impression that he is ashamed of his actions.

“You should have been able to tell that Abby isn’t a witch. She doesn’t even have a hint of witch blood in her. Hell, her blood is pure. There is no supernatural blood of any kind in her. Her kind is rare.”

“Sorry. We were jumping with every bit of information we could get our hands on,” he says with a sigh. That hint of exhaustion in his voice becoming a little more pronounced.

“Is something wrong with the pack?”

“No. No. The weres have been acting up a little too much, and we could have used a helping hand. Darius was scared that they had gotten to you. They’ve been sneaking onto our land. They aren’t happy about having to find another place to roam.”

“Anyone hurt?”

“Nothing major. Man, are you sure you don’t want me to take you home?”

“Yeah. For now, I’m safer here.”

“He’s hitting on her,” Devan says distractedly, causing me to turn my attention back to Abby. Devan walks back to the front door, and I leap off the windowsill and go back to her side.

“I’ll kill him,” I say, forgetting that Devan can hear me.

“Why are you angry?”

I don’t answer. I can’t without giving myself away. I’m sure he can figure it out though. Devan’s face reddens at this, which seems to piss her off even more and to confuse the hell out of her. I dig in her mind, and I hear her thinking,
How psycho is he that he is jealous over a cat?
I seriously dodged the bullet with him. I bet he’d be one of those men who got jealous over his own damned kids because his wife is spending too much time with them.

“You’re a dumbass,” I tell my brother, shifting the subject back to my predicament as Richards tells Abby that my dog is also missing.

“What?” Devan asks, cutting his gaze down to me in confusion.

“It didn’t cross your mind once that I might be in a form other than a wolf or dog?”

“No. You never shift into anything else, and especially not a cat as cute as you. She should have named you Mittens or Fluffy.”

“Got to hell.”

“Why are you a cat anyway?”

“I told you. I think Mave thought this would be funny.”

“It is a little funny,” Devan says, chuckling.

“Shut up. Anyway, she cursed me into this form. It has nothing to with my shifting abilities.”

“Damn, you must have pissed the witch off good.”

“I wouldn’t have if you hadn’t deleted her number. Hell, if you had been sober like you were supposed to be, I would have avoided her all together and none of this would have happened.”

“Seriously?” Devan looks away from me, guilt making him uneasy.

“Yes, asshole. Helping your fellow pack members avoid fertile humans and unwanted supernaturals is what the sober member is supposed to do.”

“Yeah, sorry about that. You going to report me?”

“I don’t know. It depends on how all of this plays out. Have you told our parents or the pact where I am and what has happened to me?”

“For the most part, yeah. Pop agrees that you should stay. Mom’s worried, but wanted to know if the woman is a looker and if she has any shifter blood in her. I told her yes on the first one and no on the second, but she still thinks I should try to make up with her. I don’t think it’s going to happen. It looks like she has eyes for the man with the badge now.”

“I can tell.” However, I’m relieved to see a bit of a frown on her face as one of the officers continues to point out the lack of testosterone in the house. The flood of officers leaving her house pushes Devan back down the driveway for a minute.

Tell him to go to hell
,
Abby
, I shout in her head.

“What’s going on?” Devan asks.

Damn. He must still be close enough to hear me. How far down the drive is he? “Have you been drinking?” I ask. That is the only way he wouldn’t be able to hear their conversation.

“Maybe.”

“What the fuck, man?”

“I had a few beers with lunch. Nothing major.”

“Whatever. The police officer is asking her to dinner.”

“What did she say?”

“Nothing yet. Wait a minute. She agreed to the date,” I say, ignoring the parade of profanities that flood my brother’s head at the news.

“Whatever,” he spits. “I’ll check on you soon. The next time you’re human let me know.”

“Will do. And no more drinking. You need to be at your peak to defend the pack against the weres.”

I listen to his grumblings as he leaves. The sounds getting low and lighter the farther he gets from me.

Chapter 18

~~~Abby~~~

“If you are calling to ask me if he has called, I’m going to hang up on you,” I snap the second the phone hits my ear. My sister has called nearly every single day for the last month asking me if Richards has called. I knew it had been a mistake to tell her about the date when I did it, but I was kind of excited.

“Fine. I won’t ask.” Silence follows her words, and we sit there for a long time.

“He said he would call in a few weeks. Give him time. And if he doesn’t call, then he doesn’t call,” I finally say. I actually thought about hanging up on her, but then decided that was too bitchy of a reaction. She is excited for me after all. I couldn’t be mad at her for that.

“Call him,” she suggests.

“No, I can’t do that,” I say shocked at the idea.

“Why not?”

“Because I’m not that desperate.”

“Yes, you are.”

“No, I’m not. You and every other female in my life are desperate for me, but I could care less. I’m happy with my life the way it is.” And that is the truth. No one can see it, can understand it, but it is the truth.

“Calling him is not a sign of desperation. He made plans with you and you will just be following up.”

“It’s not like we are business partners. I have seen him maybe a handful of times, all of which surrounded by drama. We don’t know each other. For all I know, he doesn’t even remember who I am. None of that matters because even if I wanted to call him, I can’t. I don’t have his number.”

“You do,” she says in tone that suggests that I’m a moron.

“I don’t. I have the number to the police department. I’m not calling the police department to confirm a possible date. Not only is that insane, but it could get him in trouble if he is still working my case.” As I plead my own case, my phone beeps. “Listen, Carrie, I’m getting a beep, can I call you back?”

“Yeah, okay, love you.”

“Love you, too.”

I hit the button on my phone to answer my incoming call without even looking at the number.

“Miss Sinclair?” a male voice asks.

“Yes,” I answer with a hint of a tremor in my voice unsure of who is on the other line. I pull the phone away from my head and quickly look at the screen. The number is one I don’t have programmed in my phone and don’t recognize.

“Miss Sinclair, this is Mark Richards, I’m the officer working the Sullivan case.” I can hear the smile in his voice. Obviously, I don’t have a clue who he is.

“Oh, sorry, I didn’t recognize your voice. I don’t think you ever gave me your first name. Please call me Abby.”

“Abby. Am I calling at a bad time?”

“Not at all, I was just talking to my sister on the other line.”

“Should I call you back?”

“No. No. I can talk to her any time. As a matter of fact, the chances are high that she will call me back before our conversation is over.”

“You have one of those siblings,” he says, laughing.

“Oh, yeah. She’s very needy, but I love her.”

“I understand. My little sister tries to be that way with all of us, but with my job, she can’t call whenever she wants. The only problem is that with my job being what it is she worries too much.”

“I bet.”

Then an uncomfortable silence falls on the line. I wait for a long moment before asking if he is still on the line.

“I’m here, sorry. I…uh… Well, it’s been so long since I’ve done this. I’m a bit nervous. Are you still willing to go to dinner with me?”

Relief floods me at his words. I was sure he was about to give me more bad news about the search for Dimitri or Mave.

“Yes, of course. I mean if you are still interested.” That sounds a little self-conscious of me, I know, but I want to give him an out if he wants one. Granted, if he had wanted out, he could have not called. I wouldn’t have thought badly of him, considering we hadn’t made specific plans that night.

“I am most definitely. My captain released me from the case two days ago. I’m free to date you without compromising the case.”

Did he say date as in going on multiples dates? Nah. He probably just means this one date. Either way, I can’t help plastering a big smile across my face. Thankfully, he can’t see how cheesy I’m being.

“How about this Saturday, say around seven at Carrabba’s? Unfortunately, I will have to meet you there. My shift runs late on Saturdays. I would make it on Friday but my brother is going to be in town for the day, and I want to visit with him.”

“That’s fine. Saturday at seven it is.”

“Great. I should get back to work. I’ll see you Saturday.”

We hang up awkwardly, of course, mostly because I never say goodbye and that throws people off. True to her personality, not a second after I hang up the phone Carrie calls me back. I laugh and answer the phone.

“What is so funny?” she asks by way of a greeting.

“Nothing. Nothing at all.”

“Who called?”

“No one interesting,” I say and laugh some more.

------------------

“I can’t believe you hid this from me all week,” Carrie whines as I dress for my date. She and my friends aren’t making as big of a deal out of this date as they had the last. I hope that they are taking my two dates as a sign that I’m making an effort to get out and enjoy life. Maybe this means they don’t have to push me so hard.