The Shifter's Choice (12 page)

“Welcome back, son,” said Major Scofield.

“I told you I could do it,” said Zharov.

“Johnny.” The captain’s voice cracked as he moved up the opposite side of the bed. Sonia stepped back as the two men embraced. Johnny’s finger monitor slipped off and the machine shrieked. The two drew apart and Zharov replaced the monitor and reset the machine.

Johnny turned to his doctor. “When can I get out of here?”

Sonia laughed and brushed the tears from her face. Her captain’s Adam’s apple bobbed.

“Tomorrow,” said Zharov.

“Tonight,” said Johnny.

“It’s nearly midnight, son,” said the major. “You need sleep and look at Touma. She’s practically swaying on her feet.”

Johnny looked at her, really looked. She pushed her hair back from her face and smiled.

“You all right?” His voice was rich and low and did funny things to her insides.

She nodded and dropped her gaze but her skin still tingled from that look.

“Tired?”

“We’re all tired, Johnny.” She signed,
Stay the night. I’ll stay too.

He pursed his lips and looked to Zharov. “I’m leaving tomorrow. I have a date.”

Johnny grinned at Sonia and her stomach did a funny little quiver. She had been fond of the wolf. But what she was feeling for Sergeant John Lam was something else entirely. Something strong and exciting and scary stirred inside her. Funny to be more afraid of him now than when he was a werewolf.

She’d failed to keep her distance from him then. What chance did she have now? But a promise was a promise and he was taking her out tomorrow night.

She needed a dress.

* * *

Sonia startled awake at the alarm, confused by her surroundings and disoriented with fatigue. The barracks, she realized. Johnny insisted she find a bed and it didn’t seem right to sleep at his place any longer. He wasn’t there and when he returned, he’d be a man. That changed everything.

He was a man again, and one that made her insides curl up like a ribbon on a birthday gift. She’d seen his photo, of course. The captain had showed it to her, but that photo wasn’t Johnny, or a least not this Johnny. The boy in the photo had been a young marine before he’d ever seen action. Then his face was more angular, his body more lithe. Now his mouth was pure sensuality. And his body had bulk, mass and a power that she suspected came from his werewolf side. And his hair, well instead of the short bristle of a man in uniform, he now had long sweeping straight black hair that reminded her of an Asian Antonio Banderas. It was long enough to draw back at the nape of his neck, a look that she found sexy as hell.

But there was something else, something dark. His eyes reflected a palpable danger. Time, experience and his injuries had changed him. He had transformed to human form but held on to that sharp edge of the wolf.

Sonia stretched and rose with the other women in her barracks. They went about their business casting her odd looks as if they’d found a toadstool growing in the center of the room. She had the fastest shower of her life and then reported to the medical facility, feeling oddly uncomfortable in her fatigues. But Johnny wasn’t there. They said they had him running some physical tests and she was not going to see him until they released him at seventeen hundred hours. She couldn’t believe they were releasing him at all. He’d left her a note that was written in a crisp, bold, unfamiliar hand. His transformation would change so many things between them. She felt lost and sick to her stomach as she read that he would pick her up for their date at eighteen hundred and to leave him a message as to where to find her. She scribbled her reply on the bottom of the page explaining that she would be at Brianna’s home, then returned the note with the messenger. Then she checked to see if there was anything she was supposed to be doing. No one knew.

She was Johnny’s translator, only he didn’t need one any longer.

Sonia recognized that she was about as necessary as a fur coat on a weasel. John Lam no longer needed a teacher or a companion. He no longer needed his private entourage and he no longer needed her. How long until they sent her packing? Suddenly the nervous excitement of their date was replaced with a twisting anxiety. She knew how things worked. She had top secret clearance for a job that had just disappeared. What would they do with her now?

Sonia left the base and walked up the hill to the home of Brianna and Captain MacConnelly. Brianna greeted her warmly and asked for news of Johnny. Sonia told her what she could and right there in the middle of her description of Johnny’s transformation she began to cry. She sat on Brianna’s white couch beside the arrangement of birds of paradise as her shoulders jumped like a semiautomatic rifle, her breath coming in short uneven gasps. Brianna did not come to sit beside her or wrap a comforting arm around her shoulders.

Sonia’s embarrassment grew as she continued until she glanced up and saw Brianna pale and wide-eyed, gripping her hands together so tightly that her knuckles had gone white. Then Sonia recalled that Brianna couldn’t go to her, couldn’t offer physical comfort without also causing Sonia physical harm. Brianna nudged a box of tissues in her direction and then fetched a glass of water.

Her hostess set the water on the black lacquer coffee table before Sonia. “Travis says Johnny is doing really well today. Strong as a bull, that’s part of the condition. They retain that strength, acute hearing and enhanced sense of smell even when in human form. But no one is sure if Johnny has reversed back into human form permanently or if he will be able to change between forms. I know he still smells like a wolf.”

Sonia lifted her face from the tissues and gave a questioning look.

“It is one of my powers, the sense of smell. I can also see in the dark.”

Sonia knew her eyes must be the size of saucers but she could think of nothing to say, so she reached for her water and took a sip.

“Did you see him?”

Brianna rubbed her palms together and stared absently at the floor and then met Sonia’s eyes, forcing a smile. “Last night. No one saw me. He seemed human but there is that darkness clinging to him. I only feel that around werewolves. Travis says that it is because they are my natural enemy that I sense them. In any case, no one is sure if it is possible to make a werewolf truly human again.”

Sonia’s disquiet grew as the unease rippled over her like a hot breeze and she availed herself of a tissue to wipe her eyes.

“Travis is going to try to teach Johnny how to transform today. At first it takes a few minutes and it is not pleasant to watch.

Sonia remembered witnessing Johnny’s change and shivered.

“Travis can change very fast now. I asked him once if it hurt and he said, ‘Hell, yes.’”

“If Johnny learns to change at will then he won’t need sign language anymore,” said Sonia.

“That’s right,” she said brightly. “He won’t.” Brianna’s smile faded as she regarded Sonia’s glum expression. “Oh, I see. Has anyone spoken to you regarding your future?”

Sonia’s breath hitched. “Do you know something?”

“No. But I understand your concern.”

Sonia shifted uncomfortably on the pristine white sofa. With no visitors it might always look this sterile and new, she realized. There were no children here, no pets, no life other than the vampire and her werewolf husband.

“Johnny seems very comfortable with you and you seem fond of him. I don’t think his new condition will change that.”

“It will if I’m reassigned. I don’t expect them to keep me here with no job to do.”

There was an awkward pause and Sonia realized Brianna was glancing at the door. She hurried to get to the reason for her visit before this strange woman sent her away.

“We have a date tonight. I promised him that when he changed back he could take me dancing.”

Brianna smiled brightly. “How romantic.” Her smile flickered and faded. “But I didn’t think marines were allowed to date one another.”

And they weren’t. Sonia groaned. Why hadn’t she remembered that rule when she had promised Johnny that they would go dancing.

She cradled her head in her hands and exhaled. “He was so angry after the last lab failure. I was just trying to cheer him up.” It wasn’t exactly true. She was trying to give them both hope.

“Well, I suppose you could get permission. Does Travis know?”

“He must. I was talking about it when Johnny was unconscious.” Sonia wondered how she was going to get out of this one and then felt a sharp tug in her heart. That’s when she realized she didn’t want to get out of it. She wanted to go out with Johnny so much it hurt. She lifted her gaze to Brianna issuing a silent plea.

“I’ll call Travis. These are hardly ordinary circumstances. He’ll have to understand.”

When Sonia didn’t return her smile Brianna cocked her head.

Sonia rose and took a step toward Brianna, thinking to throw her arms about her and the vampire lifted a hand again to stop her. Sonia halted.

“I’m sorry. I forgot again.” Just thinking of going out with Johnny made her heart ache and her blood rush and she knew that marines weren’t allowed to fraternize, but she was thinking of fraternizing him right out of the clothing that he now needed. Her original problem now rose in her mind. She rubbed her neck and said, “I have nothing to wear.”

“I’ll handle that. Is that the only reason for the long face?”

Sonia shook her head. “He’s so different, like another person.”

Brianna’s brows swept lower. “Sonia, I never knew him before he was a werewolf. But I know he is the same inside.”

“But not outside. You’ve seen him. He’s gorgeous. And he doesn’t need a translator and as for a date, he could have his pick.”

“And he picked you.”

“I don’t know what will happen next.”

“If you mean what will happen tonight, that will be up to you. He’s been in wolf form a long time, but he is still a gentleman. You only need to say no.”

If she
could
say no. Johnny was so appealing it frightened her more than the first time she’d seen him.

“Sonia?”

She glanced up and noticed that she had torn several tissues into tiny little pieces.

“Oh! I’m sorry. I’ll clean that up.”

“You
have
dated men before. Haven’t you?”

She didn’t really consider them dates. She’d met men in a variety of places. She’d even slept with a few. But she never went back for seconds and made sure that they couldn’t, either.

“Not exactly a date.”

“What exactly?”

Sonia held it in a while longer and then decided that Brianna was as good a sounding board as she’d likely find.

“I’m not a virgin. But I’ve never had a steady boyfriend by choice.” She was careful and always very clear that she was not interested in a relationship. In that way she had satisfied her needs. “I don’t like the idea of being trapped in a bad relationship and I don’t like the idea of being vulnerable. I’ve got baggage. Bad home, yada, yada. Anyway, it feels safer to just keep to myself but sometimes...” She glanced up and saw the pain reflected in Brianna’s eyes. If anyone understood the need to keep apart, it was this vampire. She chose her own company, as well, but for different reasons, selfless reasons.

Brianna nodded. “Funny, before I knew, I was just the opposite. I’d do just about anything to switch places with you, be able to have friends, go out in public. I’m lucky my husband is immune or I’d have no one. And here you are able to make connections and you don’t.”

“Maybe I just haven’t found the right guy.”

“Or you prefer to be safe and alone. But Johnny slipped under your radar because he wasn’t really a man, more like a nine-foot Labrador Retriever right?”

“I never thought of him like that.”

“Well you clearly didn’t see him as a man or you would have kept him at arm’s length.”

“That wasn’t possible with Johnny. He wouldn’t... I didn’t... Well, he was very stubborn. And he knows stuff about me that no one else does.”

“You can trust him with those secrets, Sonia. He’ll never betray them.” She rubbed her hands together in anticipation. “So, what time is the date?”

Sonia glanced at her watch. “At six. I hope you don’t mind, I told him to pick me up here.”

“We have to get you ready!”

Brianna herded Sonia into the bedroom and had her try on a series of a half-dozen dresses. Demure midnight blue, sleek short black, shimmering silver sequins, elegant gold halter, regal purple, a crazy black and white shredded silk number and then a slim, high-waisted poppy-red cocktail dress.

“Why do you have so many dresses when you...” Sonia stopped herself too late.

“When I don’t go out?” Brianna’s smile never reached her eyes. “Travis does my shopping. He likes to see me in dresses. We have date night at home, order in.”

Sonia thought her captain would also like to show off his beautiful wife. But he couldn’t.

“That’s the one,” said Brianna pointing at the red. “It looks lovely with your skin tone and with a red lip you’ll look like the kind of woman that every marine in the world wants to take out for dinner and dancing.”

What kind of woman, Sonia wondered, did Johnny want her to be? As she stared at her reflection in the full-length mirror it suddenly hit home that Johnny had not been with a woman for many months. Did he hope that she and he... Sonia blanched, not because she could not imagine sleeping with Johnny but because she could imagine it in great detail and it made her skin flush and her body grow damp.

She wanted to sleep with him. What she didn’t want was a relationship because a relationship meant trust and she didn’t trust her heart to anyone. Besides, it couldn’t last. He was a war hero and she was, well, the opposite of all that. Johnny didn’t need her anymore and she’d be stupid to let herself need him. Sonia knew she was many things but stupid was not one of them. Realist, pessimist, whatever you called it, she knew it wouldn’t work out between them. So she told herself to keep it light and casual. So why did her heart ache with the dread at their impending breakup? And how did she get out of here with her dignity? She didn’t do relationships, but now, because of her work with Johnny, she already had one and it was about to get complicated. Johnny’s condition had caused her to lose her secrets. He knew her deep down and now he was a man, an alluring man who wanted to take her out.