Things That Go Hump In The Night (15 page)

Nicole took a deep breath. "Look, there was something else I wanted to talk to you about, before you distracted me."

"Admit it, it was a very pleasant distraction," said Gabriel. "I'll put in a request with Greg over in IT to activate the Ethernet connection in Sachin's old office, and then he'll move your desktop system over. You should be all settled in by next Monday."

Nicole smiled at him. "Thanks."

"So what did you want to talk to me about?"

Under his expectant gaze, knowing that he was going to be late for his meeting, Nicole's resolution wavered.

She couldn't just tell him point-blank that she was a werewolf, could she? She needed some time to lead into the subject.

"What are you doing on Saturday?" she asked him, instead. "I'd like to invite you over for a home-cooked dinner. Do you like Italian food?"

Maybe she would tell him then, when he had a glass of wine in his hand and wasn't in a rush to get to a meeting. She would need the time between now and then to figure out what—if anything—she was going to say.

But if she told him, he'd start asking questions that she couldn't answer, and things would get...
messy
.

And worse, Gabriel might not want to date a freak that turned into a wolf.

Mark Aquila had promised not to say anything, and he was going to teach her how to control her shape-changing. So there really wasn't any
need
for a big confession right this minute, was there?

"I love Italian, and I love home cooking. I'll bring wine," Gabriel said, with a smile that took her breath away.

It wasn't his usual teasing or wicked smile...he looked happy.
She
had made him happy. It was a good feeling, and it warmed her.

"Good," she said, knowing she was a coward. "I'll email you my address and directions."

Chapter 9 – Werewolf Boot Camp

"Take off your clothes," said Mark Aquila.

It was early evening and already dark. They were standing in a clearing behind the Visitor Center that served as a staging area for hikers in El Cerro Azul Regional Park.

The park was located in the hills about thirty miles south of the city. It officially closed at sunset.

Following Aquila's orders, Nicole had parked her Honda in a turn-off on the side of the road leading to the park gates, and they had walked into the park, skirting the deserted parking-fee booth, the parking lot, and the closed Visitor Center.

"Here? Now?" said Nicole, shocked.

The clearing was deserted, and other than Aquila, she smelled only the scents of squirrels, rabbits, deer, raccoon, and the sharp tang of coyote.

But it still felt awfully...exposed, especially since the clearing was illuminated by the lights from the parking lot, located several hundred yards away. And it was
cold
.

Aquila had already stripped out of his jacket and t-shirt, revealing a solid, tautly muscled body and a fascinating collection of scars that gleamed white against his tanned skin.

It looked like someone had hacked at his forearm in the past, and there were pale lines and puckered circles marking his chest. His back was crisscrossed by long lines of scar tissue, some of the lines nearly parallel. Had someone...
flogged
him? Hard enough to leave those kinds of scars?

Maybe the CIA assassin story was true, after all, and the scars were from being captured and tortured by the enemy.

She noticed a faded tattoo across his right bicep that said Legio XII Fulminata. She wondered what it meant.

He turned to her now, his shirt and jacket draped over his left arm.

"Ms. Jaeger, are you gonna try shape-changing with your clothes on?" he asked, sarcastically.

She couldn't strip in front of him. Erik's compulsion pulled at her.
Conceal the bracelet. Don't let anyone see it.

"But Mr. Aquila, what if I lose control?" Nicole asked stalling. "Except for once, I've never done this outside of my cage."

"That's why I'm here, remember? I'm an alpha, and I will stop you if I think you're about to do something stupid." Aquila sounded impatient. "Plus, you told me in the car that your beast-magic had peaked a week ago. Your wolf is not strong enough right now to take control, unless you let it."

He was right. Plus, her wolf had been unusually subdued since her date with Gabriel on Saturday. Something about him just calmed the beast inside her.

He's like Valium for werewolves
, she thought, smiling a little.

At least she hadn't scared him off with her epic freak-out, if their make-out session in his office this afternoon was anything to go by.

"Well, Ms. Jaeger?" Aquila demanded. "Or did we drive all the way out here for nothing?"

Nicole stared at him in a minor panic, trying to figure how handle the situation.

"I'll just go change around the corner," she blurted.

"Mithras' gilded balls," Aquila said, sounding disgusted. "You're shy? Trust me, you don't have anything I haven't seen before."

She thought of the bracelet.
Wanna bet?

Feeling both embarrassed and relieved, Nicole scurried around to the other side of the Visitor Center and took off her sweater, jeans, and underwear. Naked and shivering in the cold night air, she summoned her wolf and willed the change.

It felt really weird to do this—up until now, she had always been trying to suppress the shape-change, rather than encourage it. But this felt
natural
, somehow. Right.

As she fell to her knees, feeling painful cramps as muscle and bone altered their shape and the maddening, itching prickle as fur grew from smooth skin, she realized that changing didn't hurt nearly as badly as it usually did.

A few minutes later, she rose unsteadily to four paws and shook herself.

Her sense of smell was inhumanly keen in human form but nothing like now. Scents flooded her nose—the tannic tang of last autumn's oak leaves, the perfume of wild rosemary and sage, green grass and moist earth, and the scents of all the other living things in this little corner of wilderness.

The red string bracelet magically disappeared when she was shape-changed, but she could still feel it around her left foreleg.

The first time she had changed into a wolf after escaping from Erik, she had hoped to lose the bracelet when her hand turned into a paw. But somehow it adapted when she changed shape, and it clung to her, tenaciously but invisibly. 

Nicole walked slowly around the building, accustoming herself to moving on four feet instead of two.

Usually when the change took her, she didn't remember much once she returned to human form, just fragmentary memories of blind rage at being caged and the need to escape and kill whoever had done this to her.

But now, the wolf inside her seemed content, eager to run and to explore some of the more fascinating scents, including one that was both familiar and alluring.

Werewolf. Like me.

Nicole stopped and stared at the other wolf standing in the clearing, next to a pile of neatly folded clothing.

Mark Aquila was as stocky and powerful-looking in wolf form as he was in human. His fur, pure white on his chest and the inside of his legs, darkened into a brindled mix of gray, black, and golden brown on his back, ruff, and head.

His eyes had changed from the clear gray of his human self to a bright golden color, nearly glowing in the darkness.

Nicole had never seen herself when she was in wolf-shape. But if she could now change without going crazy and killing everything within reach, then the next time she changed, she was going to find a mirror and find out what her wolf looked like.

She knew her legs and tail were white and dark gray, shading to black, but she wondered whether she had any of the same reddish or golden-brown coloring on her back and ruff that Aquila did. Or whether her eyes turned from hazel to gold.

He trotted up to her, and she froze, not sure whether she should run, stand her ground, or attack him. She saw his tail wagging and relaxed and felt her own tail wagging in response.

Aquila circled her, carefully sniffing her from muzzle to tail, then crouched down, his tail moving furiously now, in a clear invitation to play.

They chased each other around the clearing for a few minutes, while Nicole found her four-footed coordination.

It was embarrassing to charge Aquila, only have her feet tangle up and send her nose-first into the dirt, but she quickly got the hang of it.

Then Aquila led the way up one of the trails, and she followed him.

They spent a couple of hours exploring the park, tracking various scent trails and even chasing a startled coyote for a short distance. Nicole discovered that it felt
glorious
to run in partnership with her wolf, rather than being dominated by her.

Finally, Aquila led the way back to the Visitor Center and nudged her in the direction of her clothing. It was a clear indication that she was supposed to change back to human now.

She went around the corner of the building and sat for a moment, wondering if she'd be able to reverse the transformation without Aquila's help.

On Cage Nights, she just remained in wolf form until her wolf wore herself out, then shifted back to human without conscious volition.

Time to switch back
, she told her wolf as firmly as she could and was surprised when her wolf agreed.

Can we do this again? Soon?

The transformation hurt, but not as badly as she remembered from her change last week.

When she had gotten dressed, she found Aquila waiting for her. He was back in his jeans and t-shirt and was zipping up a leather flight jacket as she approached.

"Well?" he asked, looking as relaxed and happy as she felt. "Did you enjoy that?"

"Yes!" she said and added, a little shyly, "I never thought being a werewolf could be, you know,
fun
. Thank you, Mr. Aquila. For everything."

"Call me Mark," he said decisively. "Is 'Nicole' okay with you?"

"Sure," she said warmly.

She'd been too intimidated by him before to think of him as
Mark
, and his insistence on calling her
Ms. Jaeger
just kept things formal.

"What I wanted to show you tonight," Mark said, as they headed to the park's entrance gate, "is that you don’t have to be afraid of your wolf. If you transform before the beast-magic accumulates to dangerous levels, you can stay in control and bleed off the magic to keep it at safe levels."

"You know," Nicole said, "I was thinking this was a curse, but being a shape-shifter—I didn't know it could be like
this
. It's really kind of cool."

"You were thinking of it as weakness, when it's really something that makes you powerful," commented Mark, his voice suddenly crisper, his tone more educated. "I wanted to show you the positive aspects of being a shape-shifter and to get you to stop fearing it. You're faster and stronger than the ordinary humans around you, and your senses are more acute. Someone tries to mess with you, they'll be sorry."

His grin was feral in the dim light.

She nodded. "I was just afraid I was going to hurt someone when I wasn't myself."

"A little caution never hurt," Mark agreed. "But you'd gone beyond
cautious
, Nicole, and into
paralyzed by fear
." He shook his head. "You had to lock yourself inside a cage to feel safe."

"It's the only way I knew," Nicole said, trying to beat down the bad old memories.

"So, did you tell Gabriel yet?" Mark asked as they approached her car.

Nicole hunched guiltily. "No time yet—he's always in meetings. But we're having dinner on Saturday. I'll probably tell him then," she said, trying to convince herself it was true.

As she got into her car and started the engine, Nicole realized that she felt like a huge burden had been lifted off her shoulders. Starting now, she wouldn’t be living in fear of going on a rampage, of accidentally hurting or killing anyone.

And for that, she was so grateful to Mark, and to Gabriel, who had arranged for her to meet Mark.

Chapter 10 – Truth and Consequences

"Nicole," said Gabriel, as he stood at the entrance to Nicole's cube. "I'd like you to meet someone."

Nicole, who had been in the middle of a huge yawn when Gabriel arrived, felt her face heat.

"Uh, hi, Gabriel," she said without looking up, still typing furiously. "I'll be with you in just a sec."

She had gotten home late last night after Mark Aquila's second Werewolf Boot Camp session, and even her Cage Night special caffè latte hadn't been enough to make her feel alert and awake this morning.

After the ease and fun of his first lesson on Monday night, last night's training had been tough.
Really
tough.

Mark had shown her how to use her wolf to sharpen her senses, while still remaining in human form. It was a delicate balancing act—Nicole had to give the wolf just enough control to use her strengths but not permit her to transform.

She hadn't managed to head off the transformation until the very end of the session, when both she and her wolf had been completely exhausted by the series of aborted shape-shifts.

Mark, despite his gruff manner, was actually a very patient teacher, and he had told her it would take a lot of practice until she could do it consistently.

She finished the line of code and turned to look at Gabriel.

Standing next to him was the most beautiful man she had ever seen. Gabriel was drop-dead gorgeous himself, but
this
man...

"This is Stephen Jadikira, Archangel's special guest today," Gabriel said, looking amused at her reaction. "Stephen, this is Archangel's new system architect, Nicole Jaeger."

"I've heard a lot about you, Ms. Jaeger," said Stephen Jadikira, extending his hand.

"Pleased to meet you," she said, acutely aware of her hoodie and jeans next to his impeccably tailored... well,
magnificence
was really the only way to describe it.

He had the kind of fine-boned face that would remain stunningly beautiful into extreme old age, with high cheekbones, smooth, deeply tanned skin, and wavy dark hair in an expensive cut. And his large dark eyes, framed with long lashes, studied her with intense, flattering interest.

Stephen Jadikira looked hauntingly familiar. She told herself it was because everyone in the high-tech world knew him. 

The tabloids and Internet gossip sites loved running stories about the handsome founder and CEO of Minoan Systems, one of the first (and definitely the most successful) secure cloud storage companies. He was also the owner and captain of a yacht that had won the Americas Cup...twice.

Jadikira's wife, Ianthe, was the stunning heiress to Medusa Sea Lines, a major Greek shipping company, and the founder of a charity that ran schools for girls in places where women were traditionally denied educations.

Nicole had never met an honest-to-goodness celebrity before. She thought he'd look older, considering how long she'd been hearing stories about him, but he looked to be about the same age as Gabriel, somewhere in his early thirties at most, though that couldn't possibly be right.

Stephen Jadikira had a really nice smile—that reminded her strongly of Gabriel's smile. As did the structure of his face...and something about the two men's postures, which were oddly similar.

And their scents were very similar as well, a trait usually only shared by family members.

"Are you two related?" she asked, hesitantly, not wanting to come across as a complete dork.

"Stephen is my cousin," Gabriel said, grinning at her. "He's Greek."

"I'm Cretan, not Greek," Stephen gently chided Gabriel, in his lightly accented English. He added dryly, "And if you can't remember that, then I worry about your grasp of detail. Perhaps Archangel Security Networks is not the right solution for Minoan Systems."

"Ouch," said Gabriel, still smiling. He didn't seem fazed by Jadikira's threat.

Jadikira sighed and clapped his cousin on the arm. "You used to be easier to tease, Gabi."

"When I was ten, maybe," Gabriel shot back.

But Nicole was barely listening to their banter. Her attention had been caught by a glimpse of an all-too-familiar red string bracelet, peeping out from beneath a crisp shirt cuff on Jadikira's left wrist.

Her stomach knotted in horror.
It can’t be! He's
famous!

As if being famous could prevent something bad from happening to you,
she chided herself an instant later.

Hoping that maybe she was mistaken, she looked again. But it was one of the
special
bracelets like hers, knotted in a pattern that hurt her eyes if she looked at it too long.

The two men were still tossing gentle insults back and forth when Gabriel cleared his throat.

"Well, we're interrupting Nicole, who I know is on a tight deadline. And it's nearly time for lunch—shall we head over to Salt & Bourbon? Rafe texted me that his 11 o'clock is running overtime, as usual, and he'll meet us there."

"Ms. Jaeger, it was a pleasure to meet you," Stephen Jadikira said, sounding sincere. "I hope we see each other again."

Nicole summoned a smile and took his hand. It was warm, and his grip firm.

With a flash of a flirtatious smile for her, Gabriel gathered up his cousin and left, leaving Nicole to stare after them in shock, her heart pounding madly.

Oh, God, she had to find some way to warn Gabriel that his cousin was in danger, enslaved to something vile.

But how could she possibly make him believe her without sounding crazy?

She knew the answer, and it left her cold and more frightened than before.

But she couldn't just leave Stephen Jadikira to the same fate that she had once endured. She remembered how it felt to be bound body and soul to a demon who fed on pain and fear.

Nicole couldn't delay any longer. She had to get Gabriel alone, the sooner the better, and tell him everything she could.

Even if it meant that she might lose him.