Part 21 (1/2)
”Vicki, I have been avoiding the dawn for a long time. Don't patronize me.”
Okay. Maybe she deserved that. ”Look, Henry, it's late, you've only got one good arm - at best one and a half - I've had a very rough day, and it isn't over yet. Please, give me one less person to worry about over the next few hours. We know this guy is coming right up to the house and we don't know for sure just where exactly Donald was shot.””You didn't ask him?”
”I didn't get the chance. Look,” she sagged against the wall, ”let's just a.s.sume that the farm is under a state of siege and act accordingly. Okay?”
”You're asking me to do this for your peace of mind?”
She drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. She had no right to ask him such a thing for such a reason. ”Yes.”
”All right. I'll sit quietly in the kitchen and work on an outline for my next book.”
”Thank you. And keep the wer in the house. Even if you have to nail the doors shut.” She slid a finger and thumb up under the edge of her gla.s.ses and rubbed the bridge of her nose. ”I mean, how many times do I have to tell them to stay out of those fields?”
”An enemy they can't see or smell isn't very real to them.”
She snorted. ”Well, death is. I'll see you tomorrow night.”
”Count on it. Vicki? Is he likely to be difficult?”
She shot another glance at Celluci, who was attempting to cover a ma.s.sive yawn. ”He excels at being difficult, but I can usually make him see reason if I thump him hard enough.”
After she hung up, she rested her head for a few seconds on the cool plastic top of the phone. She couldn't remember the last time she'd wanted to sleep this badly.
”Come on.” Celluci pulled her arm through his and steered her out into the parking lot where the heat hit them like a moist and semi-solid wall. ”I know a cheap, clean motel out by the airport where they don't care what time you show up as long as you pay cash.”
”How the h.e.l.l did you find a place like that?” The yawn threatened to split her head in two and the pain came down on her bruised temple with hobnailed boots. ”Never mind. I don't want to know.” She slid into the car and let her head fall back against the seat. ”I know you're dying to begin the interrogation - why don't I just start at the beginning and tell it in my own words?” If she had a nickel for every time she'd said that to a witness, she'd be a rich woman.
Eyes closed, she started with Rose and Peter in Henry's condo. She finished, with Donald being shot, as they pulled in at the motel. The only thing she left out was Henry's actual nature. That wasn't her story to tell.
To her surprise, Celluci's only response was, ”Wait in the car. I'll go get us a room.”
As she had no intention of moving farther or more often than she had to, she ignored his tone and waited. Fortunately, the keys he returned with were to a room on the ground floor. At this point, she doubted her ability to climb stairs.
”Why so quiet?” she asked at last, easing herself gently down on one of the double beds. ”I was expecting another fine set of Italian hysterics at the very least.”
”I'm thinking.” He sat on the other bed, unbuckled his holster, and laid it carefully on the bedside table.
”A concept I know you're unfamiliar with.”
Except he didn't knowwhat he was thinking. There were a number of things Vicki wasn't telling him and exhaustion had distanced the events of the night so they felt as though they'd happened to someone else.
He couldn't believe he'd actually pulled his gun. It was easier to believe in werewolves.
”Werewolves,” he muttered. ”What next?”
”Sleep?” Vicki suggested hopefully, her voice slurred.
”Does this have anything to do with what happened last spring?”
”Sleeping?” Something about that didn't make sense but she couldn't quite get her brain around it.
”Never mind.” He pulled her gla.s.ses off her face and set them down beside his gun, then quickly undressed her. She let him. She hated sleeping in her clothes and didn't have the energy to get rid of them herself.
”Goodnight, Vicki.”
”Night, Mike. Don't worry.” She fought with her mouth to get the last words out. ”It'll all make sense in the morning.”
He leaned over and pulled the sheet up around her shoulders. ”Somehow, I doubt it,” he told her softly, although he suspected she could no longer hear him.
Henry stood and stared up at the night, trying to decide how he felt. Jealousy was an emotion his kind learned to deal with early on or they didn't survive long.You are mine! sounded very dramatic, especially when accompanied by a swirling cape and ominous music, but real life just didn't work that way.
The trouble, therefore, had to be Celluci. ”The man throws his life out like a challenge,” Henry muttered.
He wasn't at all surprised Stuart had attacked the detective - dominant males usually came to blows. His continuing presence probably hadn't helped. Although he had a special status within the family, while he was around Stuart remained on edge, instincts demanding that one of them submit. It was the alpha male's responsibility to protect the pack and his frustration at having to call in outside help had no doubt destabilized Stuart further.
Given Celluci's att.i.tude and Stuart's state of mind, a fight had been inevitable. Storm's intervention, on the other hand, had been a complete surprise to everyone involved, including Storm. Cloud must begetting very close for her twin to be behaving so irrationally.
Which brought them back around, more or less, to Vicki.
Henry grinned. If Celluci was a wer, he'd p.i.s.s a circle around her, telling the world,This is mine! And then Vicki would get up and walk out of it.
”I'm not jealous of him,” he told the night, aware as he spoke that it was almost a lie.
”Can we love?” The process had begun although the final change had not yet been made.
Christina turned to him, dark eyes veiled behind the ebony fan of her lashes.
”Do you doubt it?” she asked, and came into his arms.
He had loved half a dozen times in the centuries since and each time it had shone like a beacon in the long darkness of his life.
Was it happening again? He wasn't sure. He only knew he wanted to tell Mike Celluci, ”The day is yours, but the night ismine. ”
Celluci would be as unlikely to agree to such a division as Vicki would.
”You cannot resent what they do in the daylight hours.” Christina laid his head upon her breast and lightly stroked his hair. ”For if you do, it will fester in your heart and twist your nature and you will become one of those creatures of darkness they are right to fear. Fear is what kills us,”
Perhaps, when the wer were safe, he would ask her, ”Will you give me your nights?” Perhaps.
He wanted to touch her, hold her ... no ... he wanted to catch her up and throw her down and reestablish his claim on her. The intensity of his desire frightened him, stopped him. Confused, he sat on the edge of his bed, watching her sleep, listening to the soft sound of her breathing play a counterpoint to the helicopter roar of cheap air-conditioning.
They'd never had an exclusive relations.h.i.+p. They'd both had other lovers.She'd had other lovers.
Mike Celluci forced his hands to relax against his bare thighs and took a deep breath of the chilled air.