SwitchBack: A Paranormal Werewolf Romance (Knightsbridge Canyon Series Book 1) (16 page)

“Same reason?”

“Yeah. You need to forgive yourself, Ashlee.”

“I know that!” I pounded the heels of my hands lightly against my head. “In my brain I know that, but in my heart…a hell of a lot easier said than done.”

“At least you’re facing up to the problem now, instead of running away.”

“Yeah. I am, amen’t I?”

“Amen’t isn’t a word, Ash,” Shane said with a flash of that smile.

“It is now. I write for a living, so I should know.”

“You run away for a living, Ash. You write for a paycheck.”

“Yee-ouch. And how do you know all these things? Have you been haunting me?”

Shane smiled. “Now and again. When you do something near enough to here. The farther away, the harder it is to go there.”

“That makes sense. Maybe I should become a ghost writer. Interview the spirits.”

“Funny. That’s what I always liked about you, you know. Your sense of humor. Too bad your sister is losing hers.”

I sighed and ran my fingers through my irritatingly short hair. “It’s not her fault. Like Mom said, she feels responsible for everything, and she hasn’t run. I ran, and now that I’ve come back, I kinda know what that’s like. Feeling responsible, I mean.”

“Like for my death. But you weren’t responsible. It was your first change. How could you know?” Shane put his ghostly arms around me and I could almost feel them.

“If not me, then who?”

“Nobody, maybe. Sometimes in life shit just happens.”

I grunted. “Tell that to your sister.”

“I’ve tried. She won’t let it go. Jeanetta hates me, she hates you and she hates herself. In fact, she hates everything around her. I can’t even get near her anymore, there’s so much black energy coming off her. I don’t know what she’s gotten herself into but it’s not good.”

I turned around and Shane’s arms blew away into wispy mist before reforming where they were supposed to. “What about Spanky?” I asked.

“Who?”

“Elle and Amber’s dog.”

“Oh. I have no idea.”

“Dammit!” I rubbed my arms as the wind started to pick up across the plateau. “Can you find out?”

Shaking his head, he said, “Not really.”

“Why not?” I snapped, then realized how selfish that sounded. “I mean, I would really appreciate it if you could.”

“Because I’m at peace now, Ash. I’m leaving tonight.”

“What? You can’t be! What about me forgiving myself and all that?”

“You’re on your way, Ash, and the other side is calling me. I have to face up to my own ghosts and their judgment now.”

My mind whirled, and I wanted to ask him a thousand questions about everything ghosts knew – the afterlife, and souls, and God and stuff like that – but it was too late. Shane had already started to fade. His fingertips brushed my cheek, and this time I did feel them as tears flowed down my face.

“Goodbye, Shane. Forgive me.”

“I did. I do,” were the last words I heard from him.

Now there’s irony for you.

“I can’t manufacture them, Ashlee. They come when I don’t want them, they don’t when I do.” She changed the subject. “So, I guess you’re playing in the game tonight.”

I laced up my high-tops, and the smell of leather hit me. I inhaled and relaxed. I was actually looking forward to getting rid of some of my feeling of helplessness, anxiety and aggravation on the basketball court at the alumni games that night.

 “Yeah,” I replied. “I figured as long as I’m here, it’s a good enough reason to slam some backboards.”

“Yes, well, don’t be alone, and don’t take any drinks from strange water bottles.”

I looked at her, alarmed. “Will and the team will be with me the whole time. But do I really need to worry about getting roofy’d?”

“Just…be cautious.” She pulled me into her arms.

“Yeah, well. You too.” I hugged her back then stepped out of Elle’s way as she poked me in the side.

“Besides, I’ll be there and packing,” Elle said.

“Why doesn’t that make me feel better?” I teased. But I really did. Feel better, I mean. In a big place like that, surrounded by lots of people.

What could happen?

Shit, I
so
did not think that, did I?

The women’s varsity versus alumni game was like a Powder Puff match on steroids. I’d forgotten how good it felt to work as a team and my former classmates seemed to take it all in stride. I still had my jump shot, and my hang time was legendary. But what these girls didn’t know was that I had a lupine ace up my sleeve…I could dunk, at least on a regulation high school basket. Like I said, my monthly wolf run seemed to put my body into top physical condition.

Lucky me.

It was late in the fourth quarter when the scent came to my nostrils. I stood at the free throw line after sinking the first of two when I smelled him. Smelled Spanky. At least I thought it was Spanky. But there was a stale aspect to the spoor, as if the vitality of the dog was layered in an olfactory residue of other canines, some of them dead. My lip turned up at the thought of the violation of my pack.

Yeah, somehow, with the scent came the reminder that Spanky was just that. A pack mate.

I nailed the second free throw. As soon after as I could, I ferreted out the location of the Spanky smell.

Sean Gottlieb was wearing the uniform of the Animal Rescue Clinic and stood on the sidelines behind the other basket, holding a covered pet carrier. That was where it came from.

We took up defensive positions around the key and I waited to make my move. Cassandra Jenkins, wiry hotshot and point guard, took a dribble past me when I snatched the ball right out of her hands. Before I could even think, I had loped down the court and, after hitting my layup, I sent my body flying into Sean Gottlieb, knocking the carrier to the floor.

On the ground, I rolled over to look into the crate. Inside I could see a frightened miniature Schnauzer.

It wasn’t Spanky.

Sean paled as I looked into his eyes.

“Ashlee, isn’t it?” He smirked nervously. “Just couldn’t pass up a good game of B-Ball, could you?” It sounded like a line he had memorized.

I snarled and left him standing there. The bastard was taunting me, but his heart wasn’t in it, so I knew who had put him up to it.

Amber looked over from the sidelines. She and some of the other alumni cheerleaders had squeezed back into their old outfits and were doing a creditable job of rallying our fans. I shook my head and shrugged.

Time to finish this basketball game, and then we needed to finish the other game that someone was playing. Because I had smelled Spanky on Sean, even though our dog hadn’t been in the carrier. His scent had been fresher than the three weeks it had been since he’d gone missing, so the little weasel had to know where he was, had to have been in contact with him at some point.

I hate to gloat, but we toasted those kids. I knew when I was in high school that alumni games were about celebrating the ones who’d gone before. Why not let us bask in being a big shot for one night, even if I’m only reliving the fading dreams of my childhood? Back then I’d thought about going and playing college ball, even maybe working my way to a women’s pro league, before the Incident sidetracked me.

I even had a standing offer to assistant coach if I was willing to move back to town. It wouldn’t have been hard. I had to admit, it made me feel pretty good to know I wasn’t a total pariah as I collected quite a few pats on the back or the ass as I headed back to the locker room. I took a shower with the rest of the team and then hurried back out to the bleachers to watch Amber announcing the year’s nominees for Homecoming Court.

Standing there on the sidelines with Will at my back, feeling guilty for feeling so good, I asked myself what kind of person I was and what did I really want? Lonely but glamorous travel all over the world, or coming home to deal with real life and, oh by the way, no more free spa trips and an expense account.

What a quandary.

Then my hackles started to rise.

Jeanetta Macdonald stood behind the platform, next to the stage, and I realized that she was waiting to make an announcement, as she wore that Animal Rescue Clinic uniform and carried a pet crate. If she hadn’t come here for something official, she would have been dressed to the nines as she usually was.

I grabbed Will’s arm and pointed.

Will turned to where I was looking and said, “Stick close to me,” as he pulled me through the crowd.

Elle got there first. “And may I ask what you have there, Ms. Macdonald?” she was saying as we rounded the back of the bandstand where they were waiting.

“Well, since you know the Animal Rights Commission and the Animal Rescue Clinic has long been a supporter of the community, we thought we’d drum up some compassion for the animal shelter by showing one of our adoptees. Hopefully, we can find him a good home.”

“Him, eh?”

“Oh, yes. He’s just the cutest little thing. A couple of kids turned him in a few weeks ago and even though he was in pretty bad shape, we nursed him back to health and now he’s better than before.”

“May I?” Elle said. Amber was watching out of the corner of her eye and I shrugged my shoulders. I already knew it wasn’t Spanky.

But Amber didn’t know that and I could see her disappointment as Elle removed the animal. He looked like Spanky, but up close Amber could see he wasn’t.

I looked into Jeanetta’s eyes and saw a flash of victory there. Her pulse rate sped up and I gaped at her. She was actually getting off on this. I was so going to terminate that bitch.

“Let’s go,” I said to Will. “I don’t think I can stomach this anymore.” He walked me back to the locker room.

“I’ll just get my things,” I told him and I slipped inside to retrieve my gym gear from the locker, ignoring the “Cleaning in Progress” floor sign.

The place was a haze of moisture as I maneuvered around the wet patches yet to be mopped up by the janitor. The man shoved his mop here and there as his head bobbed and he hummed to himself beneath long hair and a ball cap, his shoulders hunched. My sense of smell got overwhelmed by perfumes, deodorants and cleaning fluid scents, or maybe I could have avoided what happened next.

My bag was right where I left it on top of the lockers and as I climbed up on a bench to retrieve it, I felt a sharp pain in my ass overlaid right on top of the still-healing scar. Instinctively stepping down, I slipped in soapy water and landed on my back.

I smelled blood and rolled over, reaching down to where the pain had bit me. My hand came away bloody and in my palm was a smashed tranquilizer dart.

Seriously? In the ass again?

Those were my last thoughts before darkness took me.

My eyes watered and my pulse raced, fighting off the effects of whatever they’d shot me with. I knew my body was trying to drive the drug out of my system. Looking around I saw that Amber and I were flanked by a deep depression like a medieval fire pit, filled with red hot coals and rising heat waves. To the left I saw the climbing flames of a bonfire. Large ancestor rocks ringed it, touching the flames. I recognized them from research I had done on the Cherokees for a travel piece about casino resorts.

Wicker scaffolding arched above us, what I realized was the skeleton of a sweat lodge.

A sweat lodge in a cavern? Okay…

Sean Gottlieb tended the fire, half-naked with his shirt tied around his waist and a handkerchief across his face like a bandit. He had welts and scars crisscrossing his back and shoulders and I wondered what had made them, then winced as I speculated about his and Jeanetta’s relationship.

I heard a bark to my right and saw Spanky pawing at the bars of a cage, looking worriedly at me.

“Spanky,” I breathed. “Amber, it’s Spanky!” I hissed.

Amber didn’t answer. Must still be out from whatever they shot her with, I thought. I was a lupine, and in better physical shape than my sister, so naturally I would awaken first.

I felt the heat begin to rise as Sean shoveled some hot ancestor rocks into the depression near my feet. I stared up at him, but he didn’t look at me until I spoke.

“Why are you doing this?” I croaked.

Spanky barked and Sean looked away, not saying anything. He went over to pour some water into a bowl and slid it into the cage.

Well, he seemed to like animals. That might be something I could work with.

“Could I get some water over here?” I coughed.

He didn’t answer, but brought a water bottle to me and held my chin up as he poured some into my mouth.

“Thank you,” I said. “Now give some to Amber.”

“She’s still out.” He looked at me for a moment in apology, and then turned to walk away.

Before I could pursue that thought, Jeanetta Macdonald strode through the cave entrance. She wore a dark bustier and a pair of black chinos, with matching Doc Martens laced up the ankles, and I had to admit, she looked kind of hot.

For a raving lunatic, that is.

At least Amber would approve of her taste in S&M fashion. Wouldn’t want to be murdered by a tacky Vogue reject after all.

“Ah, you’re awake. Good. It’s just about time to start the ceremony.”

“What the hell are you doing, Jeanetta?” I coughed and elbowed Amber in the back. I got a grunt in response, which made me think she was playing possum and buying time, hopefully thinking of a way out of this mess. Mother! I sent out a silent prayer, or plea, or mental message, whatever you do to call ghosts.