“the human.”
Tom rose to his feet in a sharp movement that scraped the chair across the floor, making it teeter and nearly fall. He strode restlessly around the kitchen, swearing under his breath. I could feel the heat of his magic rise in an overwhelming tide. It washed over him, and I knew that this time he wouldn’t be able to keep it at bay. Blank hissed, his back arching, every hair standing on end before he bolted through the door and out of the kitchen.
Transfixed, I watched in horrified fascination as Tom’s body began to shimmer. His bones shattered and popped, moving visibly beneath his muscles and skin, which had begun to flow with thick, coarse fur. It took what seemed an eternity, but was actually only a few minutes, for the entire process to take place; for the man I loved to be replaced by a huge beast of fur and fang the size of a small pony.
He took up most of the space between the table and the door. I couldn’t have escaped that way if I’d wanted to. But I didn’t want, or need, to escape. Unlike most werewolves Tom was always Tom, whatever his form. He might not be able to talk to me in his wolf shape, but he was still in his right mind.
Of course that didn’t keep me from swallowing hard and staring. I mean, I know intellectually that he’s in there. But staring at the reality from a few inches away made me a little…nervous. Grandmama, what big teeth you have, indeed!
Tom, are you okay? I thought the words directly into his mind.
I’m fine. Angry, a little frustrated that I don’t have better control than this, but other than that I’m just peachy. His irritation actually comforted me. If he was coherent enough to be capable of sarcasm we were in good shape.
“Do you still want to try what we talked about yesterday? I might be able to go back to not only that vision but the other ones, too, maybe get a few more details.”
There was more than one? He didn’t say “and you didn’t tell me,” but I could feel the thought brush by before he was able to stifle it.
“We were going to talk about it when you got off shift, remember. It’s not like I’ve had a chance to tell you before now.” I pointed my finger at his nose and was rewarded with a half-hearted wag of his tail. Are you sure you want to do it with company in the house?
Not really. But Elaine had been anxious to come here before anything bad had happened. I didn’t for a minute believe she’d wander off and leave me alone now that we had proof Janine was going off the deep end. Right now, when she was still deeply asleep, might be our only chance for any privacy at all. I hadn’t answered in words, but Tom must have caught the gist of my thoughts because he answered. The meditation gear Dusty bought you is in the hall closet. Let’s do this while we can.
I let Tom lead. I wouldn’t have been able to fit past him anyhow. The kitchen was a mess, half the food would be wasted. It didn’t matter. I wasn’t hungry anymore anyway. I could clean it later. Who knows, maybe I’d even have a girl/girl bonding session with Elaine doing the dishes. I doubted it, but stranger things have happened. It took a few minutes to set everything up. I had to move one of the chairs and the coffee table to the side of the room to make enough space for the both of us, but I managed it without making too much noise. I could tell because the snoring hadn’t diminished. If anything, it had increased in volume. Whether that meant she was sleeping more or less deeply I didn’t have a clue.
I spread the mat on the floor. The blue nylon cover looked bright and cheerful against the hardwood. I set pillar candles at each of the front two corners. I was glad Dusty had chosen white, according to the books it symbolized protection, and I wanted all that I could get.
The incense burner was brass. Shaped like Aladdin’s lamp, it had been intricately cut with a lace-like pattern of holes. I flipped open the hinge lid, dropping in two small cones of sandalwood incense. I used one of those trigger-style lighters to make sure it was burning steadily before flipping the lid closed. I knelt on the mat a little to the left of center and signaled for Tom to join me. When he was lying down comfortably, I lit the candles and settled next to him, sitting cross-legged, my left hand resting palm up on my knee, my right buried deep in the fur of his ruff. I expected to have time to relax, to focus my mind. I didn’t. The vision came in a rush of sensation so real I would have sworn I was standing there, rather than sitting quietly in my living room.
It was Bernardo’s Pool Hall. I recognized it immediately. The large, mostly open room was filled with pool tables, each with enough room to move comfortably around. Fluorescent lights hung above the individual tables, creating a spotlight effect. There were probably forty or fifty individual pools of light above tables with green felt. The rest of the room, however, was dimly lit. There weren’t many patrons at this time of day. Most everybody had left shortly after last call. But there was a big money game being played at the center table. A few of the regulars sat at nearby tables, or had turned their bar stools around to watch as they sipped cups of steaming coffee.
Leo, the night barman and someone I like to call friend, was washing dishes, his shaved head gleaming in neon colors from the beer light hanging from chains above his head.
It felt as though there should be stale cigarette smoke swirling in air moved in lazy circles by the overhead fans. There wasn’t. The city had passed a complete smoking ban not too long ago. I considered it excessive, but knew just as many people who were relieved to be able to go out without having to deal with other people’s nicotine habit. I glanced around, looking for someone with a watch. In the perpetual gloom of the pool hall it wasn’t easy to tell what time it was. Hours could pass, even most of a day, without the patrons realizing it. It was good for business since the tables were rented by the hour. It had to be sometime between 2:00 and 7:00 when first call rolled around and liquor could be served, but other than that I didn’t have a clue.
I turned at the sound of familiar voices coming through the front doors.
Bryan was at the front of the group. His reddish-blond hair gleamed like burnished gold. He was laughing, his walk a little unsteady. I could see the bandage at his neck. So this was probably the present or the very near future. I sighed inwardly. He was drunk. Coming in behind him were a pair of girls I knew by sight if not necessarily by name. I felt my body tense in anger. They’d been part of the crowd he’d hung out with back when he’d done drugs. Maybe they’d even been the ones to dump him on the street when he got the bad Eden. Maybe not. Bryan swore he didn’t remember. I’d never know. But his being with them meant he was running with that crowd again, and that thought filled me with such fury that I almost lost control of the vision. I felt Tom move beneath my hand as the picture wavered, felt him giving me his strength, his calm. I took a minute to control my breathing, to still my emotions, letting my anger drain into the ground. The vision steadied, becoming clear once more.
“You’re sure Toby said he’d meet us here?” Bryan seemed a little worried. “He’s been avoiding me the past couple of weeks.”
The shorter girl was a pretty brunette wearing a cropped red top that showed a flat, tanned abdomen in the middle of winter. A piercing winked at her navel, and her denim skirt barely qualified as decent. She’d dressed for sex rather than the weather. She took Bryan by the arm, leaning into his body so that he could get a good look at her cleavage if he wanted. He did. “That’s what he said.”
She dragged a blood red nail across the skin of his chest where the neck of his black dress shirt was unbuttoned. “But I think it’s time the two of you made up. Besides, we don’t want Laurie to be lonely, do we? And I don’t share.” She stood on her tippy toes to kiss him. It was one hell of a kiss. She was practically eating him alive, face down. His body reacted predictably and she pulled away with a laugh. “Later, tiger.” She dragged her hand down the front of his body, deliberately stopping just above the bulge in his trousers. He groaned, and she laughed again, a wicked, possessive sound that just irritated the hell out of me. She led him by the hand up to the counter. He registered for a table, giving his ID to Leo, who was giving him a studiously blank expression.
I recognized that look. That was his blank bouncer face. He knew this girl, knew she was trouble. Terrific. Bryan missed the hint. No surprise. He wasn’t thinking with the big head at the moment. The brunette led him by the hand toward a table in the far corner of the hall, as far away from everyone as she could get. Laurie followed the two of them, carrying the rack of billiard balls. She watched Bryan as he moved, her eyes glittering with malice. I realized then that the real threat to my brother wasn’t the brunette.
They were playing eight-ball when Toby arrived at the front counter. I saw him walk in the door and stop, letting his eyes adjust. It had gotten light outside, he had to take off the dark sunglasses he’d been wearing. The money game was over. Leo was busy cleaning up the place and was away from the counter, so that Toby had to wait. He turned, his eyes scanning the room. When he saw Bryan his expression changed to one of horror and panic. I could see the pulse throbbing in his throat. He moved, taking a quick step backward, but he wasn’t quite fast enough. Laurie saw him. Their eyes locked. I watched as sweat beaded on his skin, his body taken with a fine trembling. God help him, he was trying to fight, but his own body wasn’t his any more. She was controlling him, moving him like a sock puppet. I knew how that felt. Monica Mica had taken over my arm, making it move of its own volition, in an effort to get me to claw out my own eyes when I’d offended her. He made her work for it. Each step forward was an individual battle. You could see the effort, and the rage, on her face. Bryan had been lining up a shot when he saw it.
“What the fu—?” He set his cue down and turned to stare, first at Laurie and then across the room to where Toby stood.
“Toby, buddy, what’s wrong?”
“I… won’t… do…thisss.” The last word had a hissing lisp. I shuddered, thinking I knew what that meant. Bryan either knew or guessed.
“You didn’t. You’re not—” he stared, his expression horrified.
“You will do what I tell you. Kill him, or die.” Laurie’s face shifted, the illusion and mind tricks falling away as more and more energy was being used against Toby. She became taller, the soft female curves hardening and flattening into a body I knew all too well. So did Bryan.
Dylan.
“No!” Toby threw back his head, shouting the word at the ceiling, his voice changing. I watched the bones begin moving beneath his skin, heard the familiar popping and breaking as his body began to shift. The word changed, becoming a long, mournful howl that somehow perfectly captured both his rage and despair.
The ring of a telephone snapped me back into the present so abruptly it was almost painful. Tom was lying on the floor panting. He was hurt? How in the hell had that happened? I blinked in the kind of confusion that comes from returning too suddenly to the here and now. It was like being woken from a particularly vivid dream, in those first few instants when you can’t quite tell which is reality.
“Tom, are you all right?” I said it with both mouth and mind.
“Just tired. I tried to help him fight. But I wasn’t there, wasn’t touching him. So it drained me more than I thought it would.”
I shifted positions until I was kneeling and blew out the candles. “If you can change back I can help you back to the bedroom.”
He gave a small whimper, but I felt his magic rise. It took longer than usual, but his body reversed the earlier changes until he lay human and naked beside me.
It took effort, but we managed to get him onto his feet. He was practically dead weight dragging me down as I hauled him bodily down the hallway. We made it to the edge of the bed before the last of his energy gave out and he collapsed, falling sideways on top of the covers. The mattress squeaked in protest, but the bed held. Too tired to move, he lay passive as I tugged the covers out from under him and rearranged his body into a more normal position. I tucked the pillow under his head, running my fingers through his soft brown curls. “I love you, Tom Bishop.” I whispered the words to him and was rewarded with an inarticulate grunt that was supposed to be a response. “I can’t believe you actually tried to send your power through a vision that might not even be in the here and now. And you say I’m impulsive.” He gave another grunt that might, or might not, have been “stupid.” Shaking my head, I bent down and kissed him tenderly on the mouth. “Yeah, well, I’m proud of you. It was generous and brave, even if it was really, seriously dumb. Now get some rest.”
He was snoring softly seconds later when I left the room. The sound was oddly comforting. He was a werewolf. I knew that given enough time he could heal almost any injury. But it seriously scared me to see him like this. Nor was he the only one I was frightened for at the moment. I’d told him that the vision might not be in real time; and it might not. But it had felt real; real enough that I wanted to talk to my baby brother. The last time I’d seen my cell phone it was on the kitchen counter, plugged in to recharge. Evidently Tom had gotten it from the hospital staff. I was glad. I would hate to lose it. The screen showed a missed call. I hit the button and it displayed Mary’s cell phone number. I’d call her in a minute. Before I did, I wanted to check on Bryan. I dialed the number of his cell phone without luck. Either he’d turned it off or had chosen not to answer. I left a voice-mail asking him to call me as soon as he could and then hung up. I thought I still remembered the number for Bernardo’s from back when I was more of a regular. I dialed, hoping I had it right. A familiar voice answered on the third ring. Not Leo, but Stevie. “Bernardo’s Pool Hall. Can I help you?”
“Steve, it’s Kate…Kate Reilly. Is Leo on shift?”
“Nope. It’s his night off.” Not tonight then. Which means Tom exhausted himself for nothing. But, there’s still time.
“Is my brother Bryan there?”
“Nope. Haven’t seen him for a couple weeks. Shame too. I can usually take him for a couple of bucks when he’s had a few beers.”