Weremones (25 page)

“Did you and the girls have another disagreement over the routines?”

Karen shook her head.

“You and Bradley have a fight?”

Karen shook her head again. She stared at her two toned Nikes.

“You are going to have to help me out here, hon.”

Karen sighed and rubbed her red-rimmed eyes with one hand. She’d been crying recently.

“It’s been a rough afternoon.”

Diana waited for her to elaborate, but Karen slumped back in the seat and chewed on a thumbnail. Diana heard the rustle of plastic as Karen toed the wastebasket, lost in her misery.

Diana made up her mind. Reaching under the desk, she flipped the computer tower off and picked up her purse. The papers she shoved aside for tomorrow.

“Come on. Let’s go get something to eat.”

All afternoon Diana had been plagued with an uneasiness that made her want to snatch up all the kids and tuck them somewhere safe.

She reminded herself again that the wolven pack was not her business. Adam, pushy aggravating male that he was, had the boys’ welfare taken care of.

“Carol, I’m leaving early,” Diana called out.

She slid her purse over her shoulder and headed for the coat rack, where Chase’s beautiful duster hung, minus the gun. Diana couldn’t make herself handle the thing, even to practice. It sat safe in her lock box. Guns gave her the heebie-jeebies.

After prying the story about werecoyotes out of Brandon later, Diana felt more secure knowing the gun was there.

Perversely, she didn’t think she could actually use it against anyone. She needed to give it back before someone got hurt messing with the thing. Like her.

Werewolves or wolven, now werecoyotes, she didn’t know what was next. Her whole world had been shaken up. Oh, after meeting Jax, the gnome, she’d known there were other things out there. But it wasn’t real to her. Now she
knew.

She wondered how she’d managed isolate herself from supernatural creatures for so long. She’d known the boys from the pack for years without realizing what they were.

Chase and Tank had said her scent gave her away. Apparently, the boys had been in on her secret for years while keeping their own.

Diana wasn’t stupid. Blind maybe. Karen and the boys contributed to that. She was a little hurt that none of them trusted her with the truth.

After experiencing a little of Garrick Moser’s evilness through Brandon, Diana could see how the boys would be careful of who they let know of their secret.

Carol called out a goodbye and Diana gathered up her daughter and herded Karen out to the car. What she needed was a night free of wolven and other bogies.

Diana was beginning to worry about her daughter. Karen had such a bright personality. She never held a bad or sad mood for long. They were nearly to Athens when Karen finally focused on her surroundings.

“I thought we were going home.” Karen said the statement like a question and looked around the car with worry on her face.

“No. We are eating Italian tonight.”

“But there’s an Italian place in Palestine.”

Diana nodded and turned toward her second favorite eatery.

“There are also shape-shifting wolves and coyotes. I’d have gone all the way to Tyler, but a gnome and a witch lives there. A hereditary witch,
not
a theological one. There’s a difference,” she clarified.

Ignoring Karen’s goggled look, she rambled on. “Athens is closer. If there are any vampires, rabid fairies, or dragons looking to barbeque the local psychic, I haven’t heard.
So
, we are going to Athens.”

“Okay.” Karen’s face brightened for the first time since she slouched in Diana’s office chair. “Is there really a gnome in Tyler?”

Diana nodded.

“And you know it? Personally?”

Diana smiled.

“Yes.
His
name is Jaxeramilix.”

“What do gnomes do?”

“Jax sells used computers and designs custom visual basic databases for small businesses.”

“Wow.”

Diana pulled into the small parking area of the restaurant and killed the engine.

“Wow is right. But I think that’s a new hobby. Jax makes his real money from the stock market. He’s been around for a while and can spot trends.” Diana reached for the door handle. “No more weird stuff for now. Let’s eat.”

She and Karen needed to get away from all of the strangeness in Palestine. They never really talked much anymore.

Diana finally broached the taboo subject of Matthew. Richard had made good on his promise to disown his daughter, going so far as to stop child support.

Lately Diana and her daughter were more like two residents of the same house, rather than a family.

Karen frowned and looked up from her dessert. She stared around the dim restaurant before returning to her apple pie
a’ la mode
.

“Is something wrong?” Diana asked the next time her daughter began searching the shadows.

“Huh?” Karen jerked, absently rubbing at goose bumps on her arms. “Nothing. Maybe talking about Matthew and Dad is making me jumpy.”

Karen leaned forward, a conspiratorial smile on her face. “Did you know that Laina is pregnant?”

Wow. Diana stared at her daughter, her fork raised halfway to her mouth.

Karen smirked and took a sip of her soda.

“Dad refused to claim the baby, so she and Sherry are going to raise it together.”

Double wow. Speaking of odd families. It was time to deal with her own. “Karen, its time you told me what’s going on.” Diana aimed the Mom-Knows-All smile with deadly accuracy. “You can’t lie worth a flip. So spill it.”

Karen looked down at her empty dessert plate, looking a little green around the gills. She took a sip of her soda and finally heaved a sigh.

“I’m a terrible person.”

Used to the dramatics, Diana reserved judgment for after the confession.

“I hurt my best friend and now I don’t know how to find him because there’s a psycho killer after the wolven.”

“He?
What psycho killer?
”

Karen took another shaky drink of her soda.

“Brandon ran away right before last period today.”

“I thought Bradley was your boyfriend.” The feeling of uneasiness that had plagued her came back with a vengeance, making her slightly nauseous.
“What psycho killer?”

“The one that is killing strays that come into the pack’s, uh, Adam’s territory.”

“Does he know about this?”

Karen nodded, looking pretty sick herself.

“And Brandon?”

Karen shrugged and grabbed her cloth napkin to wipe at her red watery eyes.

“Bradley dropped me off at your office and went to look for him.”

“Are you sure that you’re the one he’s upset at? Maybe something else is bothering him.”

“I told him that he needed to see a counselor.”

Karen told her about the confrontation with the teenage werecoyotes. Her stranglehold on the poor cloth napkin would have shredded the cheap paper kind.

The world had a nice faraway feeling. Diana wasn’t drunk, but the two glasses of wine and the information overload had definitely done a number on her. “I think I may need a counselor,” Diana mumbled and rubbed her forehead. “Let’s go home. There’s a certain fuzzy backside I need to chew out.”

Karen gave a faint smile at the weak joke as they got up to pay the bill and leave.

Outside, Diana settled the duster around her shoulders, inhaling the smell of it.

“It sure did get dark fast.” Karen plucked at the duster. “This is great. But isn’t it hot?”

“A little.” Diana admitted. She opened her purse to dig for her keys. “I’m kind of hoping to see Chase and Tank again.”

Karen gave her a funny look. She rubbed her arms again, glancing around the shadowy parking lot.

“But what about Adam?”

“What about him?” Diana looked up from her purse. “Oh! I don’t know.” She fished out the keys and gave a general wave in the air. “Everything is just so … crazy. It’s like I’m connected to them all. But then again, I’m just some busybody lady who’s the mom of Bradley’s girlfriend.”

And she’d had sex with him twice. Sort of.

Diana sighed and slumped.

“And Adam makes me
so
…
so ..
. did you know he’s enlisted Bob Benedict in his cause for me to date him? He’s insane.”

“Is that a good insane or a bad insane?” Karen looked hopeful.

Was her daughter looking for a surrogate father?

Adam’s sexy, bossy image flashed through her mind. For some strange reason she could see him taking Karen to the annual Father-Daughter dance. She laughed the image away and answered honestly.

“I truly don’t know. Don’t tell him, but I think the hairball is growing on me.”

“You know Mom? I don’t think anyone but you could call Adam Weis Fido, fuzzy, or a hairball and get away with it.”

“You think so?”

Karen nodded. Her features were soft and thoughtful in the dim lighting. They reached Diana’s Cavalier and parted to get in on each side. Karen paused at the end of the trunk to share a smile with her mother.

“I’d bet the bank on it, Mom.”

“Think you’d bet your life on it?” A gravelly voice cut into their conversation.

The dark form of a tall man grabbed Karen from behind. She jerked up straight, her eyes wide with fear.

The silver teeth of a hunting knife glinted in the dim parking lot light. The blade pressed at Karen’s throat.

Diana lunged forward, not thinking of anything but getting to her daughter. The knife flicked forward at her face.

“Ah-ah-ah
,” the man sing-songed. He was a dirty specimen of a biker. The kind that lived in old Mad Max movies. His greasy hair hung around a long, thin face covered in a patchy beard. He bared teeth that Diana expected to be broken and rotten, but were movie star straight, if dingy. His breath was soured beer and old cigarettes.

Dog, the werewolf who’d tried to rape her, breathed a nauseating, ghostly shudder down her spine.

“Hands up bitch, or I’ll go ahead and skin your pup now.”

Fear and rage coiled into a fierce ball in Diana’s middle. Strength rushed through her.

He wasn’t going to let Karen go. Diana felt his determination to kill. The hate that lived in him, reached out to touch her with slimy tentacles.

The knife was still closer to her than to Karen, if only by inches. He held her daughter against him. His hand gripped her hair.

Diana lunged while he was still spread thin, stretched between them.

Her hand closed around the wrist holding the knife, forcing him to relinquish control of either Karen or the knife.

He let go of her daughter, just as she figured he would. The attacker bore down on Diana. She hit the gravel hard. Rocks pierced her knees. She fought with both hands to get the knife in her possession.

“Run!” Diana screamed. Or tried to when the sound cut short as his fist collided with her jaw.

Her head swam in a splotchy underwater. She felt her grip loosen.

“Nnnn,” she groaned.

Burning fire slid into the top of her breast.

“Mommy!
”

“Get the keys.” The gravely voice coughed in Diana’s ear. “Stupid bitch.”

Pain radiated through her body pounding in the beat of a drum. The world spun as she was jerked upright by one arm and shoved against the side of the car. She had to stay conscious for Karen’s sake.

Keep Karen safe. That was her mantra.

“Get in and drive or I’ll finish her off now.”

Karen got into the front seat while the man shoved Diana into the back.

She tried to pay attention as the car vibrated to life, but mostly conserved her strength while trying to figure a way out of this mess.

The sensation of her lung filling with something other than air, began to intrude on the throbbing burning pain in her chest. Diana choked and coughed.

“Where are we going?” The sound of Karen’s high thready voice gave Diana something to focus on.

“Shut up. I’ll tell you were to go,” the man rasped, coughing a dry smoker’s cough. A rustle, a brief flare, and the rancid odor of cheap cigarettes wafted in the car.

Diana prayed to God that someone had seen them in the parking lot and called nine-one-one. Her next hope was Adam.

She tried to concentrate, to send a message, the feeling of danger to her wolves. A pothole jarred the car, sending pain throughout her body. Her concentration scattered.

She choked again, and sputtered, and coughed again.

Adam walked to the back of the house, entering through the kitchen and dropped his load on the table.

“Hey! Anybody home?”

He didn’t’ see Bradley’s truck or sense anyone, but called out anyway. It seemed the thing to do since he was late getting in.

Probably everyone was at the Ridley house. He’d thought about going out there while at the grocery store, the feeling that he needed to check up on his females ate at him.

He thought about the migraine that had sent Mack home and to bed. A bloody migraine, his friend called it. The kind the psychic occasionally got when he had a bad premonition, seeing, or whatever the hell the man called it.

Whatever the images, they were bad enough that they had to be pieced together, instead of viewed as a whole.

One of the reasons Mack wasn’t in active service anymore was that sometimes he randomly experienced someone’s death before it happened. Sometimes the psychic was able to track down the designated dying in time. Sometimes not.

Seeing Mack go through that much suffering on someone else’s behalf made Adam respect the man like no one else. It also put him on edge.

Who was the target? Him?

Not so far fetched an idea with everything that was going on.

Mack assured him that it was no one the psychic knew.

What was it like to know someone was about to die? That you might be able save them if you could find them in time?

How did you choose who to save? Should you try? Or was it messing with the natural order of things?

Adam ditched the philosophy since he was one of the saved.

He paced across the kitchen.

Where was everyone? He checked the fridge for notes and found none. He concentrated on Diana Ridley, his biggest frustration.