“I saw enough.” He arched an eyebrow at me. “And that is all I’m saying. I’m still processing this.”
“I know it’s a lot.” Something nagged at the back of my brain, but I ignored it, the desire for denial stronger than the idea’s will to push through. My left wrist throbbed—I hadn’t put on the brace before coming out—and it appeared to be slightly more swollen than my right one. I’d have to put ice on it before driving home.
The idea came through. Leo, just post-transformation, the look on his face as his territorial feelings about Wolfsbane Manor and its grounds overcame his better judgment as a doctor and caused him to hurt me in a manner that would not heal quickly. Ron’s story about the professor’s daughter and how it had cost him his fellowship popped into my head right behind it. My interlude with Gabriel the morning after Louise died and how we had almost made love right there on the island, the desire so thick I could taste it. Passion, lust and greed: the animal part of the brain on overdrive. And I had just left Gabriel alone and naked in a clearing with my best friend, whose state of mind was as yet unknown, but who had been known to dally with the occasional unsuitable male, even to hunt him.
“Oh God.”
“What?”
“We need to go back.” I turned around and was surprised to feel Iain’s iron grip on my right wrist.
“It’s probably already too late.”
I shook my head, tears stinging my eyes. “But it would ruin everything.” The image of the wolf from Cabal’s letterhead came back to me— “Unfair, unfair,” indeed. I knew it would sound silly to him, how she’d always been taller, prettier and more confident than me, but we were still best friends in spite of it. She’d had her pick of boys in college, and I would never date them after her because if I did, I’d wonder if I fell short—literally and figuratively. That I’d kissed Gabriel first wouldn’t matter. I couldn’t compete with the passion of the perfect woman or the new werewolf.
“If you’re going to live with them, you need to be able to accept the limitations of the disorder. You need to realize that they can’t be held completely accountable for their actions.”
I knew he was right, but I didn’t have to like it.
“It’s already too late,” he said again and gently tugged me after him up the hill, past the barbecue pit, and around the lake. We gathered their clothing and trudged back, only to find the clearing empty, the only sign of what had happened a flattened area in the pine straw on the ground and traces of the dead rabbit.
“Where are they?” I asked. Then I saw it. The black wolf. It snarled, and Iain and I took the hint and ran the other way. We made it to the road just as the clearing exploded and knocked us to the ground as the earth rocked and black smoke poured over us.
“Are you okay?”
I opened my eyes and found Leo’s dark brown ones looking into them with concern. “You were out for about five minutes.”
“Iain?”
“I’m all right.” His voice sounded shaky, but at least he was alive.
“Can you move everything?” Leo asked.
I tested my fingers and toes. Everything worked fine. “Can I sit up?”
“We need to wait for the paramedics. I saw the whole thing. You got thrown back a few feet. I don’t know if there’s any spinal damage.”
“You’re the orthopedic doctor.”
“It’s hard to tell by just touching sometimes.”
“Are you okay?”
“I was still in wolf form. If I’d transformed…” He gestured to himself. He was naked and vulnerable. His wolf-hide had probably saved him.
“The black wolf. I saw it.”
“It warned you. I would have, but it dashed out there first and snarled at you. I couldn’t follow—I had to make sure you were okay.”
“Thank you.”
He raised his head as the sound of sirens floated through the broken trees. “I’ll be close by, but I don’t want to be seen here.”
“I don’t blame you. Go find some clothes.” I gestured to the ones we’d brought, which wouldn’t have fit him even if they had been wearable.
He melted into the shadows.
The paramedics arrived with the police, checked us out, and declared us to be generally unharmed, just shaken and bruised. We declined to go to the hospital for X-rays and other diagnostic tests. Then we had to deal with the police again.
“I don’t know what you’ve done, but someone wants you to stop doing it. Badly,” the detective said to us as we sat in his office. Again, we were bruised and dirty, and I still clutched the tattered remains of the clothing.
It was a rehash of the day before, this time sleep deprived, exhausted, and with something to hide. This time I couldn’t deny that the black wolf had warned us, and my head spun as the implications sunk in. It had warned me the day before, although I hadn’t realized it, but enough of the warning had sunk in to make me pull Iain back in the nick of time. Then there was the night Louise had died. Had it brought her to Wolfsbane Manor to give me the message, “The black wolf knows”? And had it been what had set my car alarm off and broken my focus so that I could escape that night from the fire in the lab? What if the black wolf wasn’t my enemy, but rather some sort of twisted guardian angel?
What if the black wolf wasn’t a wolf, as I suspected? Leo and Ron said they’d tracked a strange werewolf back to the Manor. Leo hadn’t said anything that morning, but it’s not like we’d had a lot of time to chat.
“We have to go,” I said and stood. “You can contact me at Wolfsbane Manor in Crystal Pines if you have any more questions.”
“Now, Doctor Fisher, we haven’t finished talking yet.” The detective motioned for me to sit down. His drawl as well as his condescending tone reminded me of Bud Knowles, and something inside me snapped.
“Are we under arrest, Detective?”
“No, but—”
“But it’s ten o’clock, and I’ve been up since three without any coffee or breakfast, and don’t you even try to tell me that the swill and donuts you have in the break room will do. My blood sugar is dropping, and unless you’d like to give me an escort to UAMS when I crash out, I suggest you let me leave, get something to eat, and then get back to my estate. My solicitor, Mr. Galbraith, will know how to get in touch with me. Frankly, I’m tired, injured and ready to go home.”
The detective’s mouth worked, and he struggled to say something. I ignored him, and with a sharp incline of my head, told Iain it was time to go. Again, his lips twitched as though he was trying not to smile, but he followed me out without a word.
Chapter Seventeen
“I’m seeing a side of you I had no idea existed,” Iain told me as we rode in a taxi back to Lonna’s apartment.
“What can I say? Death threats and kidnappings tend to bring the best out of me.”
The police had beaten us back to Lonna’s apartment. They didn’t indicate that they’d heard we walked out on the detective. Two members of the bomb squad checked the apartment, then my car, and declared them to be clear.
“Doctor Fisher, Doctor McPherson.” The voice was Galbraith’s. He slammed the door of his antique black sedan and hurried up the stairs in front of the apartment. “The police just contacted me and told me what happened.”
“We’re getting out of here, Galbraith,” I said. “Someone’s after us.”
“It appears so. I wanted to tell you I did find those papers of your grandfather’s we discussed. In all the excitement yesterday, I forgot.” He handed me a manila folder. “And I wanted to make sure you are, indeed, unhurt.”