CHAPTER EIGHT
Sal felt a bit foolish when she was finally alone in the bedroom. She’d all but jumped Nick, and the poor guy was working. On duty. She had probably even gotten him in trouble with his boss.
“Stupid, Sal. Really stupid,” she told herself, cringing when she thought about the look on his face as he tried to pry her away from him.
She’d been clinging to him like ivy. Needy in a way she never been before. What was it about Nick Balam that attracted her so strongly? He was handsome, to be sure, but she’d been exposed to some incredibly handsome men in recent years as an actress. She’d even done love scenes with some of them and felt nothing at all beyond a mild disgust with one guy, in particular, who was a slobbery kisser.
Nick, though, he pushed all her on buttons. He was considerate, kind, built like a Mack truck, and probably deadly, as well. That should probably had scared her off, but the opposite was true. He drew her in like a magnet, strong, sure and lethal to her peace of mind.
And now, she’d made an utter fool of herself. How was she going to face him again?
She decided to take a long shower. She did her best thinking in the shower, and perhaps she could wash away some of her embarrassment and humiliation. Cleansing water was always good for the soul.
A half hour later, she felt refreshed. Still a bit embarrassed, but the water had helped wash away the mortification and soothed her emotions. It was late enough that she could justify putting on her pajamas and curling up in bed with the remainder of her homework. One last script to read, and then, she could hand the whole box back to her agent with her choices.
The rest would be in her agent’s hands to see if deals could be struck for the right timing, the right pay and all the other stuff that went along with it. Sal didn’t concern herself with that part of the business. All that mattered was working and making steady money. Supporting herself and her mother’s needs had been her only goal for a long, long time.
Now, of course, she had other considerations. Paying for security and making enough to maintain the expected lifestyle. Sure, she wasn’t going to live the most ostentatious high life. That really wasn’t her style. But it had been impressed upon her that there were now appearances to maintain.
Sal thought it was all very silly, but her agent had been adamant. He’d gotten her this far. She assumed he knew what he was talking about. Still, she wasn’t going to waste money on truly frivolous things. Sal was cautious by nature and would remain so, even if she had just hit the lottery career-wise.
She hadn’t said goodnight to Nick, which was rude, but she just couldn’t face him at the moment. Not after the way they’d parted. Maybe, by morning, her courage would return, but for right now, she was taking the coward’s way out and hiding in her room.
Besides, they both had work to do. She thumped the pillow on which she had rested the heavy script and made it stand up better so she could read more comfortably. She just had to get through this one and she could forget all her troubles in sleep.
The next thing Sal knew, she was rousing from a disturbed sleep. The bedside light was still on, but the clock read 3:57 a.m. Something had woken her. The script fell to the floor as she sat up in bed, and she realized she must have fallen asleep while reading it.
She was reaching over the side of the bed for it when all hell broke loose. A crash from above knocked the square air vent downward, into the room, with a resounding bang, and a man… No, a creature jumped down from overhead. He must’ve been in the ventilation shaft. Could things that big really fit in an air duct?
She had no sooner had this incongruous thought when the bedroom door burst open to reveal Nick in all his fighting fury. He was in a ready stance. She recognized the posture from one of the movies she had done early in her career that was heavy on martial arts fighting scenes. She hadn’t had to fight, but she’d picked up a few things watching the other actors and specialist instructors who had been brought on set to add realism.
The creature was hairy and had to be over seven feet tall. Nick was well over six feet himself, but this dog-looking thing was even bigger, with nasty teeth and a tapered shape to his jaw that made it look almost like a snout. The closest description she could come up with was that he looked like a creature out of one of those old werewolf horror movies. But werewolves didn’t actually exist. Did they?
The werewolf thing had been looking straight at her with swirling yellow glowing eyes. She’d seen the swirl of magic before in her mother’s eyes. For a moment, Sal thought maybe her past had caught up with her, but there was no way. Her mother wasn’t a werewolf. She’d never changed shape or became hairy. She was a person. Always a person, even when the mad glowing eyes took her over.
This had to be something else, then. But what?
She looked at Nick, but his expression didn’t reveal any surprise at all. He just looked pissed. Angry. He seemed to recognize what he faced, which didn’t make any sense to her. How could Nick have seen this kind of thing before?
She knew he was a man of many secrets, but this… This was something…supernatural.
The two males were caught in that moment out of time when all these thoughts raced through her mind. The creature had been looking at her when it bounded out of the ceiling, but now, its focus was totally on Nick in the doorway.
She recognized what was about to happen. They were going to face off, and she was caught right in the middle. Damn. Sal had to figure a way to get out of the way and maybe help, if she could.
Her gun was in her bag, across the room. She had been so discombobulated when she went to bed that she hadn’t taken precautions. Fat lot of good that gun did her now, when she couldn’t get to it.
All of a sudden, the staring contest ended. The beast leapt for Nick, and he…he changed.
Oh, my stars. He changed. Growing bigger and taller, furrier but not like the other one. Nick’s face transformed to something flatter than the snout the other creature sported. And his furry bits were spotted, like a leopard or something.
His clothes shredded as his muscles ripped through the flimsy cloth. It hung off him in strips but didn’t seem to hinder his movements at all. She looked at Nick’s opponent and realized he too, had strips of cloth around his middle, hanging to about mid-knee as if he’d been wearing pants that hadn’t been able to withstand the change from human to…whatever this was.
Sal curled up against the headboard of the bed, trying to make herself as small as possible while the titans clashed in the space between her bed and the doorway. If she could just scoot around them, she might be able to get out of the room.
And then, what? She had no idea, but anything had to be better than being stuck in an enclosed space with a violent fight going on between two massive creatures that were not part of the world she knew.
She would think she was having a nightmare, but this was all too real. No need to pinch herself. She knew she was awake…and seeing things that just didn’t make sense.
Although… She remembered seeing something a few weeks ago. That kid in the parking lot had turned into a cat. She’d thought, at the time, that somebody might have spiked the single drink she had allowed herself at the party. She had to have been seeing things, right?
But the kid had sprouted fur and spots a lot like Nick’s before he’d gone all the way to big cat form. He’d been a lot smaller than Nick, of course. He was only a teenager, after all. But what if Nick and the kid were the same?
And what about the werewolf-like thing he was fighting? What had happened to her nice, sane world? Had everyone gone crazy? Or was it just her?
She had to get out of there. Seeing an opening, she scooted, as fast as she could, for the door. She heard all kinds of crashing noises from the room behind her as she ran into the hallway, and her mind blanked. Where could she go? Could she even contemplate leaving Nick alone with that thing?
It occurred to her that Nick was also some kind of creature at the moment, but to her mind, he was still Nick. Still her friend. Still the guy she’d jumped on the sofa a few hours ago. And if he hadn’t had the presence of mind and willpower to stop her, she would have had him in bed with her a few minutes ago instead of ready for action.
He’d been right to stop. Harsh as it was to admit. He’d been right.
She ran into the living room and wondered what she could do to help Nick. She spotted his cell phone lying on the table near the balcony doors and ran for it. The noise was pretty intense, so she opened the glass slider and went onto the balcony where it was quieter, tapping the phone to try and find Linelli’s number.
She couldn’t call the cops. She’d figured that out right away. Normal law enforcement wouldn’t know what to do with this situation and would probably only make things worse. But Linelli and Halibut Security had to know something, right? Maybe? It was worth a shot.
She had found the right number and was about to hit send when a gust of wind, in the otherwise still night, made her look up. A giant—incredibly giant—bird looked like it was about to land on the balcony.
If she was a weaker woman, Sal would have fainted right then and there. But the bird transformed even as it landed, scrawny bird legs turning into muscular human legs and feathered wings turning into arms. The beak disappeared between one breath and the next, and Collin Hastings’ face appeared.
“You’re one of them, too?” she whispered, even as he reached behind the big planter and grabbed a kit bag.
“Stay here,” he practically barked at her on his way into the condo—heading toward the ongoing confrontation.
He was Nick’s friend. He would help Nick, she told herself. Relief went through her, even as the questions bounced through her mind.
The feral werewolf was a tough son of a bitch, but once Sal had gotten clear, Nick was free to use all his moves, without fear of having her caught in the middle of the fight. Smart mate, making room for him to do his thing. He’d stroke her later for being such a good partner.
In his battle form, the cat was much more prevalent in his thoughts. Petting his mate was uppermost in his mind, even as he defeated the feral wolf, knocking him to the carpet, unconscious.
Hasting arrived a second or two late, but still in time to see the wolf sprawl at Nick’s feet.
“Where’s Sal?” Nick asked, his sharper teeth getting in the way.
The cat wanted to come out and complete the shift, but Nick couldn’t do that just now. He had to be human to take care of his mate, and the cat understood, receding quietly as Nick let go of the in-between battle form.
“I told her to stay on the balcony. She saw me shift,” he added almost apologetically.
Nick sighed. “Yeah, she saw this, too, so the cat’s already out of the bag. I’ll square it.”
“Let me check in with my team. He shouldn’t have been able to get this far. Somebody better be bleeding or they soon will be.” Hastings’ brows lowered in anger as he started pulling equipment, and clothing, from his kit bag.
Nick knew the hawk shifter would watch over their prisoner, so he turned to leave the room, intending to check on Sal. Only, she was already back in the open doorway, looking around at the wreckage. A lot of the furniture would have to be replaced.
He turned again to meet her gaze and found curiosity more than anything else in her eyes. Maybe this wasn’t going to be as bad as he thought.
“You’re like that valet kid. A skinwalker, right?” Sal found it hard to keep her thoughts to herself and her mind had just about been blown by what she’d seen. She needed answers. She needed to know.
“A what?” Nick asked, scowling.
“Like the legends of the Navajo. My mother’s people,” she went on.
“Your mother is Navajo?” Nick seemed surprised.
“Part, anyway. But she wants nothing to do with that side of her heritage. I’ve done some research, though. I’ve read about skinwalkers. Is that what you are?”
Nick shook his head. “We call ourselves shifters, or some groups like to call themselves were. Like werewolves. Though we’re all shifters, when it comes right down to it.”
“Shapeshifters? That’s the name you prefer?” She wanted to at least get the terminology straight if she was going to deal with these people.
Nick nodded. “I’m part of the Jaguar Clan, which you probably saw.”
“Jaguar.” It was starting to make sense. “Like that kid in the parking lot. I thought I was seeing things, but I wasn’t. He’s like you.”
“One of the junior members of my Clan. He got in trouble for letting you see him,” Nick admitted
The man on the floor twitched, drawing her attention.
“I thought maybe somebody had spiked my margarita at the party.”
“We thought you might have video,” Nick whispered, coming closer.
Hastings was on the phone a few feet away, but he might as well have been on the moon. Sal’s full attention was on Nick and their weird conversation.
“Video?” She was genuinely confused.
“The kids said you were holding your phone when they finally spotted you,” he told her.
“Oh. No, I wasn’t taking pictures. I was just checking the time.”
“Well, that’s good.” Nick sounded relieved. “At least something is going right tonight. There’s a lot more we have to discuss, but we can’t talk about it just yet. I’ve got to get him taken care of first,” he told her, gesturing toward the man on the floor. He’d reverted to human form now that he was unconscious. If she hadn’t seen him a few minutes ago, she would never have known about his animal side. “Just remember,” Nick went on. “This conversation isn’t over. Merely postponed.”
She wasn’t sure she liked the sound of that, but he was right. There was still a lot to resolve here. The bad guy was unconscious, but he would come around eventually. Things had to be decided before that happened.
Sal shouldn’t have worried about what to do with the werewolf stalker, she realized a few minutes later. Collin Hastings and his people easily took charge of the unconscious man. She trusted that they would know best what to do with a guy who could turn into a freaking werewolf. She still couldn’t quite get a handle on what she’d seen.
Watching the teenager turn into a big cat to avoid getting hit by a car had been one thing. That poor boy had looked more frightened of her than anything else when he realized she’d seen everything. He’d scurried away as if his tail was on fire.
What had just happened had been way scarier. Way more dangerous, too. The lunatic had been gunning for her, and if not for Nick’s intervention… Well, she hated to think what would have happened to her without Nick and his extra special magical skill set.
“A couple of my people are down, but I have enough on call to mop up without getting the humans involved,” Hastings said to Nick after he shut off his cell phone.
“Aren’t you going to tie him up or something?” Sal asked, watching the man on the floor. He was starting to show signs of life, and she feared he’d wake up and start fighting again.
“Conventional restraints don’t really work that well on our kind,” Hastings said in a no-nonsense tone of voice. “But don’t worry. We’ve got this. He won’t bother you again.”
“What are you going to do with him?” she asked, unable to halt her curiosity.
“That depends,” Nick said, entering the conversation.
“On what?” she whispered, looking at Nick. His arms were bare, his clothing in tatters around him, but he still had a rough dignity that nothing could shatter.
“It depends on what he has to say for himself,” Nick replied, looking not at her, but at the man on the ground. Sal gazed at him and found herself captured by those swirly yellow eyes. He was awake! “No shifting, pal, or I’ll just knock you out again.” A growl sounded from the man’s throat, and it didn’t sound friendly. “Now, do you want to tell us why you’re so eager to get to Miss Lane here? So eager that you’d expose the shifter secret to a human?”
“She’s not,” the man whispered. His voice sounded as if his throat was raw. “She’s a witch. Like the bitch who put this spell on me!” The last part came out as a roar, and Hastings grabbed the guy from behind before he could launch himself at Nick again.
Sal started to shake. She was not like her mother. She didn’t have that same deadly, dangerous magic.
“Let me understand this,” Nick went on reasonably, as if the man hadn’t been threatening renewed violence. “Someone put a spell on you, and you think Miss Lane can undo it?” When the man didn’t respond, Nick kept talking. “What kind of spell, friend? What did they do to you?” His voice was gentle now, and the man seemed to respond to the kind tone.
“Can’t shift all the way. Get stuck in battle form. Hurts,” he panted, and even Sal could see the man was in near constant pain. “Makes my wolf crazy.”
“I don’t doubt it,” Nick said understandingly. “What’s your name, friend? What Pack do you come from?”
“Tony Gatling from the Sacramento Pack,” he replied, sounding a little bit steadier. “I need a witch. Someone who can reverse the spell.”
“I hear you, Tony,” Nick replied. “But I don’t quite agree with the way you’ve gone about this. We can get you to the Lords and the High Priestess can set you right. If she can’t, nobody can.”
“The High Priestess? Would she bother herself with the likes of me? I’m not an Alpha,” Tony said in a sad voice.
“How long has this been going on, Tony?” Hastings asked, easing the hold on Tony’s arms.
“About three months now. I could handle it at first, but as time goes on, my wolf is…” he trailed off.
“Full moon is tomorrow,” Hastings mused, sharing a significant look with Nick. Both men had grim expressions.
“If you weren’t Alpha before, Tony, your wolf and you have been through hell these past three months. I’d say, for you to have survived that ordeal and still be sane enough at the moment to talk about it with us, you’ve had a change in dominance.” Nick’s tone was strong, imparting some of his natural willpower to the disheveled man.
“I left my home Pack when I thought I was getting too dangerous. Thought I’d die somewhere in the desert, but the wolf saw her and made me follow,” Tony explained. “I’m sorry if I scared you,” he said directly to Sal. “But I need your magic.”
“I don’t have magic,” she told him, feeling sorry about that for the first time in her life. “If I did, I would help you, if I could. I’m so sorry.”
The man just looked confused, though the glow in his eyes calmed quite a bit.
“Don’t fret, Tony. We’re going to get you help. I promise,” Nick told him.
“Why would you help me?” Tony sounded miserable now, and it struck Sal’s heart, even though the guy had scared her half to death with his antics.
“Because, even though our animals are different, we’re all brothers under the skin,” Nick said. “Helping you is the right thing to do.”
“Who are you?” Tony asked, sounding hopeful for the first time.
“Nick Balam, beta of the Jaguar Clan. And this is Collin Hastings.”
“The werehawk investigator,” Tony said, turning to look at Hastings. “I’ve heard of you.” His eyes went swirly again, and the moment of sanity faded, but he was calmer now.
“Come on, Tony,” Hastings said to the man, walking him toward the door to the bedroom. “I promise you, we’ll get you to the High Priestess before the moon rises. Your wolf will run again. Tonight.”
Sal could hear Tony weeping as he and Hastings walked down the hall.