The Patient Wolf (Wicked Urban Fantasy #1) (13 page)

Chapter 20

“Ana, please. Can
I come in? I’ve got to talk to you.”

His hair looked as if he’d been running his hands through it, rather than combing it; his shirt was wrinkled. He looked exhausted, as if he hadn’t slept in a week. Ana’s heart leapt at the sight of him.

She just didn’t want him to know it.

Silently she opened the door wider and gestured for him to enter, then led the way back to the kitchen.

“You look good,” he said, taking in her dress and hair, which was still pinned up with rhinestone clips.

“You don’t. You look like hell.” She relented a little. “Do you want some coffee?

“Sure. Yeah. It doesn’t matter. Ana, I couldn’t stay away. I’ve missed you every day. I’ve been worried sick about you. You don’t know, but I’ve followed you home each night. I’ve been afraid you would be attacked again.”

She turned from the coffee machine to look at him. “So what now? You are telling me you’ve been stalking me? You think that is the way to win me back?”

“No, I’m not stalking you. Okay, maybe I am stalking you.” He ran his hands through his hair again in frustration. “I’m sorry, if that’s the way it sounds, but I’m afraid for you. Alexander Fontaine is a very dangerous man, and you’re out with him almost every night.”

“Chris this is crazy. Alexander says the same thing about you. Why should I believe you over him? He’s one of my kind. You’re not. You hunt my kind and lock us up, or destroy us.”

“What does your heart tell you about me? And him?”

“I’m supposed to trust my heart? It led my pretty far astray the first time. Jonathan isn’t a shapeshifter. He isn’t even a Hunter. At least you know what I am. Poor Jonathan had no idea what he was getting into with me—and I couldn’t tell him. I wasn’t allowed to. He never understood why my family wouldn’t accept him. I thought I was following my heart then, and it tore us, it tore me apart. How can I do that again?”

“Because I’m in love with you and you’re in love with me.”

“It isn’t enough! I want something easy this time. I want to be with someone my family approves of. I want to be with someone like me. Loving you just isn’t enough.”

Chris suddenly felt triumphant. She had just admitted she loved him. He could work with that, he thought.

“Love’s got to be enough, because it’s everything. There is nothing else,” he said, standing up and taking her in his arms. “I don’t care if you’re a shapeshifter. I don’t care who or what you are. I only know I love you and I want to be with you. To take care of you, and cherish you. And Sophie. She’s a part of you and I want the whole package, Ana. We’ll make it work.”

And suddenly he could stand it no longer. He crushed his mouth against hers, tasting the cherry flavor of her lipstick, breathing in the sweet vanilla fragrance of her hair, and feeling the smooth, smooth softness of her skin as he ran his hands over her back and shoulders, left mostly bare by the incredibly sexy dress she wore. He loved the dress. She looked beautiful in it. He wanted it off of her. Now.

But. “Where’s Sophie?” he asked, regaining enough control to remember her daughter.

“She’s spending the night with Kaylee.”

“Excellent,” he said, picked her up in his arms and headed for the stairs.

~~~

A long time later Ana lay with her head on Chris’s shoulder, playing with the softly springy hairs covering his chest. “How can this ever work? How can we prove to my grandfather you are not the person responsible for killing that man in the park? That you don’t have a dog or a wolf hidden away somewhere?”

“You believe me, then?”

“Yes, I believe you. I think I always believed you. Alexander’s story just didn’t make sense. It didn’t fit with the man I knew you to be. I was just angry you hadn’t told me who you are, what you do. And I thought it would just be easier if, for once, I just went along with my family. They seemed to like Alexander so much.”

“I want to say if you believe me, nothing else matters, but there’s more to it than that. Alexander Fontaine is dangerous. He’s killed at least twice. I may never be able to prove it in a court of law, but I know he killed both my brother-in-law and Dennis Halworth, over in Mitchell Park.

“What does your sister have to say? She’s a police officer, you said. And, since she is your sister, I presume she knows about shapeshifters? And maybe she has heard something about the case that we don’t know.”

“That’s true.”

“Well, let’s go talk to her. Maybe she’ll have some ideas.”

“All right. Sounds like a plan. But it isn’t dawn yet. I think we should wait at least until it is light outside,” he said.

“Okay. I can think of ways to pass the time.”

“I think I can, too.” He laughed and flipped on top of her. “Let me show you.”

Chapter 21

In the morning Ana
called Lindsey and asked her to keep Sophie for the rest of the day. She punched on the speaker on her phone as she walked around the kitchen getting breakfast ready.

“How was your date last night?” Lindsey asked.

“It was okay. I guess the best thing you can say for it was that it helped me to clarify my feelings.”

“Well, that’s cryptic. What does that mean?”

“You mean Joe hasn’t looked in my driveway yet this morning?” Ana teased.

“What? You and Alexander? How was it? Is he still there? Is that why you need me to keep Sophie? I’m at the window now and I don’t see…Ana. That’s not a Lamborghini in your driveway. That’s Chris’s car. You’ve got to tell me what happened. How was he? I want all the details.”

“You’re a married woman. You should know about the details.”

Chris walked into the room just in time to hear the last of the conversation. He groaned and put his head in his hand. Ana just laughed at him.

“You know you can’t date a small town girl without everyone knowing what’s going on,” she told him. “You might as well just get used to it and accept it.”

“Is that Chris? Is he there with you now? Did he hear me? Oh my god, I am so embarrassed! I’ll keep Sophie for you for as long as you need. But I want to know all about it as soon as possible. Hanging up now.”

~~~

They drove over to Chris’s sister’s home right after breakfast.

“Chris? I didn’t hear you leave this morning,” Shannon said, coming down the staircase of the old Victorian just as Chris and Ana arrived. “Oh. I didn’t know you had company.” Her voice turned aloof when she saw who he was with.

Ana wasn’t surprised. She was either upset because she knew Ana was a shapeshifter and a shapeshifter had killed her husband, or because she thought that Ana had hurt Chris, or because it was obvious she and Chris were back together. Ana grimaced. There were a lot of reasons Chris’s sister might resent her. Whatever the case, it made for a very awkward meeting.

Chris, however, was either oblivious to the frosty atmosphere, or just planned to ignore the tension between the two women.

“Hey, Shannon. This is Ana. I’ve told you a lot about her. And I didn’t just come in. I couldn’t sleep last night. I went over to Ana’s to get things straight.”

“Chris!” Ana protested.

He gave her a grin. “What’s good for the goose, remember? Didn’t you just promise to tell Lindsey ‘all about it?’”

Shannon, who had short, wavy light brown hair, that like her brother’s never stayed in place, pushed it back from her forehead and gave Ana a welcoming smile. “I can see that whatever was wrong between you and my brother is now right. I’m glad for you.” She came over and gave Chris a hug, then turned to Ana. “He’s my big brother and I’m
very
protective. When I don’t want to kill him. So just keep that in mind, all right?”

“I understand. I feel exactly the same way about my big brother,” Ana replied.

“So, now that you two have bonded over the trials of having magnificent big brothers, let’s get down to business. Shannon, I’ve told Ana everything, and she now agrees with us that Alexander Fontaine is the shapeshifter we are looking for. The big question is: How do we prove it?

Ana needs more background information. I thought maybe we should start with you telling her about Jason.”

Shannon put up a hand in protest. “Chris, I really don’t want to relive all of that.”

Chris put his arm around her and led her into the living room. “I know you don’t like to talk about it, but if we are ever going to bring his killer to justice you have to.”

Shannon sat down on the sofa and took a deep breath. “Please sit down, Ana. It’s a long story.”

Ana sat beside Shannon, whose brown eyes held sorrow as she talked about her dead husband.

“Jason always wanted to be a cop. Ever since he was a teenager. We’d known each other since high school; he was Chris’s best friend. That’s how I met him,” she began.

“Even then we knew, Chris and I, about the dark side: the vampires, the shapeshifters, the witches. Our mother was a witch. She didn’t always use her powers well. We saw things as children…”

“Wait! Back up … your mother was a witch? Alexander said something about their being rumors about your power Chris, but I really discounted everything he said about you. Why didn’t you tell me this? It means that you and Shannon…”

Shannon shook her head. “We don’t want those abilities. We’ve never used them. We saw what our mother was capable of. We saw her do terrible things to people. We both vowed never to use our powers.”

Now it was Ana’s turn to shake her head in negation. “We aren’t all like that. Paranormal abilities are just like any other abilities. It’s like being good in math or chemistry or being able to throw a football. The ability isn’t positive or negative. It’s what you do with it that counts.”

“We know that,” said Chris. “I think seeing our mother use her powers in a negative way is what made us what we are. We are each, in our own way, trying to fight the bad guys. But that’s what I’ve been trying to tell you, Ana. You’re a shapeshifter. I know that doesn’t make you good or bad. But there is someone evil out there. He’s a shapeshifter
and
he’s killing people. He’s the one we need to stop, and we are going to have to work together to do it.”

“That’s what happened to Jason; he was trying to stop a monster.” Shannon took a deep breath. “It’s still hard to talk about,” she apologized. “Jason and I were both with the Chicago Police. He worked downtown, near the Loop. My precinct was on the South Side.

“Early last year Jason and I started noticing there were several reports each month of a large dog, or possibly a wolf, being seen around Grant Park. The animal would appear for a few days, then not be seen for a couple of weeks. No was bitten. At first. But no one seemed to be able to catch the dog.

“Jason and I started keeping track of the incidents; we knew the significance of the timing; the dog was always seen at the full moon, and never at any other time.

“Then, one of the women he attacked was bitten. She went through rabies shots.” Shannon shook her head. “Jason and I knew that was useless, but who were we going to tell? What could we say? No one was going to believe us, anyway. I tried to keep my eye on the woman. I wanted to see if whoever had bitten her would approach her again. But he didn’t. And right after the next full moon she committed suicide. She left a note saying she couldn’t live with what she had become. You see, not only had this monster bitten her, he turned her, and then just left her to fend for herself. She didn’t understand what was happening. She must have thought she was going crazy.”

“But this is terrible. My grandfather has always made it clear, from the very first time we turn, we are not to go near people. We are supposed to stay as far away from humans as we can. It’s one of our laws. We don’t turn people,” said Ana. “And if there is an accident we take care of them. We bring them in and help them. No self-respecting shapeshifter would turn someone and just leave them!”

“After that incident it escalated. There was a killing, sometimes two, every month. It made Jason angry. He knew no one in his precinct would believe him if he explained what was actually doing the killing. They would have sent him for psychiatric treatment.

“The authorities were looking for an animal; we were the only ones who knew they should be looking for a human. So Jason started going out every full moon and walking around Grant Park. He was sure he could catch the werewolf. After all, he understood exactly what the problem was, while the other cops didn’t. He thought that was enough to protect him.”

Chris made a low sound, and Ana turned and reached out a hand to him. It was obvious talking about Jason’s death was just as painful for him as it was for Shannon.”

“Chris was away at the time,” Shannon said. “There was no one available to go with Jason on the nights when I was on duty in my own precinct.”

“I’m so sorry, Shannon. I should have been there,” Chris said, and Ana reached out again to stroke his arm.

“I know that. You would have been there if you could,” Shannon told him, then turned to Ana again. “Chris was working on a case in Louisiana, or he would have gone out with Jason that night. I know that.

“The night Jason was killed I was on patrol in my precinct. I heard the report: An officer had been mauled by a dog. I knew who it was, who it had to be. By the time I got to the hospital he was gone. They said he’d lost too much blood to survive.”

Ana put her hand on Shannon’s arm. “I’m so sorry, Shannon. I can’t imagine how hard it must have been for you. But why do you think the wolf who killed dog is Alexander Fontaine?”

“We didn’t at first. And my coming her was totally coincidental. I wanted to get away from Chicago and have a fresh start. I joined the force down here six months ago, and then, a couple of months after I got here it started again. The police started getting reports of a stray dog being sighted here, in Rivelou. I felt like I was in a nightmare and I just couldn’t wake up. That’s when I asked Chris to come down.

“At first, he didn’t believe me when I told him it had to be the same wolf: the one who killed Jason. He didn’t believe me until a few weeks ago when Dennis Halworth was killed in Mitchell Park.”

“I still don’t understand. What makes you assume it was Alexander? I don’t want to think that it is any of our people, either, but why Alexander?”

“Jason’s was the last killing that took place in Chicago,” Chris took over. “And shortly after the killings stopped in Chicago, Fontaine moved here. And a month after he arrived here the wolf sightings began.”

“But Chicago’s a big place, and Rivelou isn’t all that tiny. There must be several other people who have moved here from Chicago in last few months,” Ana protested. “If we are going to take this to my grandfather, as the head of the pack, we have to have a lot more evidence than the coincidence of him moving here at the right time.”

“There is more,” said Shannon. “You see, there was another thing that told me it wasn’t just a dog that had killed my husband. Jason always wore a watch. He loved that watch; it was a present from his parents when he graduated from college. When he was found in the park that night, the watch wasn’t on his arm. The police said that it must have come off in the attack, or that he lost it in the park, or that he wasn’t wearing it that night. A missing watch didn’t fit in with their theory of a dog, so they didn’t look for it. I did. I walked that park a dozen times looking for his watch. It just wasn’t there.

“Then, when this man was killed a few weeks ago her in Rivelou, his watch was taken, too. The police didn’t see any significance in it. Jason’s missing watch wasn’t listed in the police report. I was the only person who made a fuss about it, so the police here had no way of knowing it was a clue to the killer.

“When the man’s wife reported his watch was missing, the police said, again, it must have fallen off somewhere during the attack. But Chris and I knew differently.”

“But what does this have to do with Alexander? I know the man likes watches. He collects them. I’ve teased them about his watches. He has several; it’s not a crime.”

“Have you seen the watch he wears most often?”

“The Patek Phillipe? It’s beautiful.”

“It looks just like the one Jason wore.”