A prickling itch receded toward my fingers and toes as the change melted away. My jaw cracked, working, and I spoke as soon as I could. "Kat—"
"What the
hell
?" She was spitting mad, her chin up and her clothes torn all to ribbons. The curve of one pale breast showed through a rip in her shirt, and she was bleeding. "You…" For once, Katrina Black, nee Jasperson, ran out of words.
I never thought I'd live to see that.
I pointed at the stake. "What the hell's
that
?" A faint jasmine-loaded breeze brushed the bushes. Out here in the sticks, the summer nights are warm and redolent before morning fog rises, and the bed-and-breakfast had whole trellises full of fragrance that had escaped to grow wild.
It was beautiful for honeymoons, but I just wanted to sneeze again. A touch of growl laced itself through my voice, and my face itched like hell. I needed a shower.
She lifted the stake and glanced at it, as if reminding herself what it was. "This is a
stake
," she said finally, in her special tone of withering disdain reserved for idiots. "I've got lots of spares in case one breaks. You just turned into the Hulk in a fur rug. What the
hell
?"
"I, um…"
Well, great. There's never a good time for this
. "Stakes? I suppose you've got holy water and garlic too. No wonder my back went out carrying your luggage."
And no wonder you're sneaking around at night. Hell of a reason for a midnight ramble, Kat
.
That did the trick. She took a deep breath, that maddening slope of breast peering at me, and I checked her for more bleeding. A thin trickle from her temple, another rivulet from her nose, and her shirt was sopping wet with copper-smelling blood on one side. Very low, under the floating ribs on her right.
Merciful Sun, I don't like the look of that.
Then she blew.
"Mitchell Black, what's the goddamn idea? Why didn't you tell me you were a werewolf?"
I winced. "Your pop culture is showing, sweetpea. I'm a Sunrunner."
Not a goddamn "werewolf
." "You never told me you were a vampire hunter. And what was I supposed to do, just lay in bed while you snuck out? On our honeymoon, I might add."
Good thing I followed you, eh
? But I knew better than to tack that on.
She put her hands to her hips, drawing herself up, chin rising yet more. She looked dirty, beaten up, and completely kissable. The nostrils of her cute little patrician nose flared and her eyes went incandescent.
I get weak in the knees when she does that. Her lips thinned before she spoke, and the urge to kiss her got overwhelming.
"I'm a Knight of the Argentum Astrum, thank you
very
much, and
you
are in serious trouble. Why the hell didn't you tell—
ulp
!"
I took two steps and grabbed her. It wasn't very graceful, but I wanted to be sure she was all right. Plus she's just sexy as hell. She tasted like adrenaline, apples, and copper blood, and my fingers explored her side while I kissed her, my free hand cupping her nape. The wound was ragged but not deep.
She shoved me away, and I let her.
"You know, before I marry a guy, I like to know little things like him turning hairy and carnivorous on the full moon." She hadn't lost track. Dammit.
"I'd kind of like to know if my wife-to-be's a Silver Star, too. Night classes, huh?"
"I
do
have night classes, you jackass." The silver crucifix winked at her throat. "Hunting
sanguinant
is all very well, but the pay isn't shit. I'm filing for divorce."
I winced. "Any chance we can solve this in bed?"
"You're a goddamn werewolf, Mr. Black." She looked magnificent, all tangled and flushed and still breathing heavily. "That qualifies as need-to-know information
before
we tie the knot, in my book!"
"So does a case of stakes and a working knowledge of dowsing to find suckers." I folded my arms, grit working its way into my skin.
I get it. We're not going to talk about why you snuck out on a pretty night like this to go looking for suckers. Sure thing, Kat
.
Moonlight drenched the small clearing and the wind shifted. I heard the car before she did and leapt, knocking her down as headlights swept the curve of the road. The vehicle—sounded like a Ford—downshifted, taking the hill at an even fifty. I heard laughter and smelled exhaust. They were probably heading up to Lover's Leap, near where we'd hiked around yesterday after breakfast to look out over the juicy green valley.
My ears told me we were safe from wandering suckers for the moment, at least, but I didn't want any civilians seeing either of us.
That would only lead to trouble, and I'd had enough trouble tonight to last me awhile.
She waited until the roar of the engine faded into the distance before squirming out from under me. I could have lain there all night. But it was gravel, and she was already torn up.
Hope I didn't hurt you even more, sweetpea
. "Did he get you? On the side?"
"I'm
fine
." As stubborn as she ever was after falling down that flight of stairs. She'd sprained an ankle on that one, and refused point-blank to go to the doctor. "It won't even scar if I treat it soon. Get
off
me."
I made it to my feet a little less gracefully than she did. They don't tell you how sore hunting suckers makes you. Even if a Sunrunner has a higher rate of tissue regeneration.
She checked the two smears of fine ash left over from the two bloodsuckers—probably only unhallowed dead, opportunistic things more used to preying on livestock than humans—and dropped to one knee. Her hair, pulled back in a loose knot, fell in strands and straggles. Her nape gleamed with sweat. Her free hand came out of her jacket pocket and she scattered holy water over the writhing smears. "
O quam misericors Deus est
," she murmured.
O, how merciful God is
. The Argentum were optimists. It was, after all, why they were in this line of work. Sunrunners are just born to it.
"I love it when you get all Catholic." I hunched my shoulders, tested the wind. My ears weren't tingling, a good sign. No suckers within smelling distance. I relaxed the rest of the way. "I'm itching all over. Let's go, I'll wash your back."
And take a look at that wound. That's not a good place to get hit. Merciful Sun. She could've been really hurt
.
"You are
so
sleeping in the doghouse, Fido." She hauled herself up with a sigh worthy of my old granny.
Granny would have approved of my Kat. "You don't mean that, sweetpea."
"Bullshit I don't. Come on, I dropped my other stake. Help me find it."
All in all, she took the news that I can change into a timber wolf pretty well. Granny would
definitely
have approved.
TWO MORNINGS LATER I WOKE UP WITH AN
oof
! as Kat landed on me. Hot sun poured through the curtains and turned her hair into gold as it fell over her shoulders. The room was done in antebellum shabby-chic, with lots of froufrous and furbelows. The bed even had mosquito netting, as if any mosquito would have dared to intrude where Miz Evans of the Evans Bed 'n' Breakfast ran her shipshape little rock of down-home graciousness and army-neat order.
The breakfasts were terrific, and Kat loved all the frilly girly stuff. She'd just about gone wild over the gardens, tea cozies, and the way the bed tried to swallow us both whole. The stackable washer and dryer down the hall still held our stinking, torn clothes, soaking out the last bit of bloodsucker smell. We'd washed them four times already.
This morning, though, she bounced on me like a terrier. "Get up, lazybones. Time to read the paper."
I wanted to bury my face in the pillow, but she was just too pretty. Kat's small—only about five-four—but every inch of her is packed with dynamite. She looks like a little blonde ballerina princess, helped along by the hour she spends in dance class pretty much every day, rain or shine. I don't see where she gets the energy, between night classes, day work in the office, and hunting bloodsuckers. She has these big blue eyes and this sharp aristocratic nose, and her mouth is just made for kissing.
So I pulled her down, and I did.
It took a long time before I was close to done, and she shook herself free before I was even halfway there. "Try to keep your mind on business. I'm still mad at you, you know."
"Christ, my heart can't take that." I gave her my best
aw shucks, ma'am
grin. It usually works better when I'm not unshaven and bruised—I get my five o'clock shadow before noon. Just one of the perks of being a Sunrunner. "Don't be mad."
Especially since you didn't tell me you were an Argentum
.
I guess being married involves holding your tongue a lot. No wonder most men think it's so rough.
The smile that spread over her face was worth keeping my big mouth shut. That's my Kat, all fire one minute and softness the next. "I'm not mad, I guess." She was only in a tank top and panties, both candy-cotton pink. Matching the room.
The woman just has no mercy.
"I'm not a field agent, anyway. I'm an intelligence analyst, I track migrations and collate reports. That was my first time staking."
Are you trying to kill me
? "Your first time?"
"Well, I did okay." She pushed her hair back. Her knees were on either side of my hips, and her weight on me was incredibly distracting. "Now it's time for you to get up and read the paper. Breakfast's still warm. You want coffee, don't you?"
"Coffee can wait." I got both hands on her shoulders and brought her mouth back down to mine, and things were heading in a very satisfactory direction before she broke away again. "Goddammit, woman. You're going to kill me."
"Maybe," she agreed cheerfully. "But not until after you read the
paper
."
"Screw the paper." I caught her mouth again and ran my fingers over the slim arches of her ribs, my fingers scraping off green herbal paste dried against the wound. Argentum believe in old-fashioned cures. Mugwort and holy water do wonders for bloodsucker wounds.
I went cold all over, touching it, and she laughed, a particular low husky chuckle that just about turned me inside out before she let me do what I was dying to do each time I saw her.
The sunshine had moved on the bed before I stopped breathing heavy, my face in her hair and the little shudders going through both of us. "Nice," she whispered into my neck. "I like that."
"Me too."
Better each time, actually. I guess waiting for marriage was worth it
. "What do you say we do it again?"
"You're a menace." She shivered again, a delightful little movement. The air-conditioning had kicked on. "Move over, I'm cold."
"Delighted to." Something crackled as I finally got her under the covers and cuddled up against me, her panties gone and her tank top discarded too.
She didn't snuggle nearly long enough before fishing around with one hand and bringing up something I blinked at. It was the county seat's daily, the
Cotton Crossing Register
. "Jesus." I managed a moan. "You just don't quit, do you?"
"A couple of minutes ago you were happy about that." She spread the paper out one-handed, awkwardly. "Take a look."
"I don't want to." I brushed her hair back, the golden floss tangling around my fingers like seaweed. "All that's in there is who tipped whose cow or quilted someone else's corn or something."
"Shows what
you
know, Fido."
"Are you going to keep calling me that?"
"Until you live the other night down, yes. Since you won't read, I'll tell you all about it." She snuggled down, her hip bumping me. "Police blotter says four kids disappeared two nights ago. Their car was found up at Lover's Leap."
"Disappeared? In a town this size?"
"You were the one who wanted a road-trip honeymoon; this town is bigger than the last one you subjected me to. At least it's a county seat. By the way, if our children have tails and floppy ears
you're
going to be making the explanations."
"The change doesn't happen until puberty. Protective coloration. And I liked the idea of pulling over whenever you wanted to act like a teenager at the drive-in." I sighed, settling her head on my shoulder more securely. "Four kids?"
"Remember that car? The one that happened by just after we staked those two
sanguine
?"
"Ford. Four-door. Rounded headlights."
Right after you almost gave me a heart attack by vanishing under a hundred and a half pounds of spitting bloodsucker.
A thin thread of unease worked its way through me.
"Was it? I couldn't see, you were in the way. Anyway, their car was unlocked and just sitting up there, the paper says. What does that tell you?"
"That someone's going to have to explain why they left Daddy's car up on the ridge?"
She nudged me with her hip. "No, idiot. It means there's a nest around here."
"Good God." I hadn't gotten past the two bloodsuckers we'd killed. I'd been too worried about Kat. "You think so?"
"I don't think, I know. Guess why it made not just the blotter this morning, but also the second page."
I didn't want to know. "Why?"
"Because two kids disappeared last week too. Boy and girl, a nice couple. She was a cheerleader; he was the local football star. Want to put even money where they probably disappeared
from
?"
FOR A TOWN OF THIRTY THOUSAND PEOPLE, IT certainly looked like a fifties movie set of the proverbial one-horse burg. Kat outright refused to stay in a place with less than two stoplights. I'm not the only urban creature in our relationship.
Of course, Kat's first stop was the local library, a brick building sandwiched between a feed store and Cotton Crossing's City Hall, such as it was.