He gave her a sly smile. He knew what he did to her, damn it! "Don't be gone too long."
"I won't be," she whispered, "because I don't trust you."
He laughed. "Good. Best to be alert always."
Ashton grinned, but Rourke looked annoyed. The sheriff had already left.
"Watch him," she said to Rourke. "Don't let him sneak out of the hospital." Then she thought about the food incident and added, "And don't you help him do that either."
Then she left, but she had a very bad feeling about the situation.
For a human, Tessa had pretty good wolf instincts. As soon as she was a little way down the hall with Ashton, Rourke got Hunter's clothes for him. Hunter pulled out the I.V. and then hurried to dress. "I take it you have a way to get us to your place until we rendezvous with Ashton and Tessa and head to her house."
"Taxi." Rourke got on the phone and called for one. He took the knife from one of the breakfast dishes and sawed through the hospital tag around Hunter's wrist.
"Can you occupy the nurse while I go to the lobby and wait for the taxi?"
"Got it." Rourke left the room.
Hunter waited until Rourke asked the nurse when the doctor was releasing Mr. Grey. Then Hunter stalked down the hall, found the stairs, and bolted down them. When he reached the lobby, he paced. Rourke soon joined him.
"It won't take long for them to realize you're gone."
"They can't hold patients against their will." Hunter glanced out the window. "Taxi's here."
"That was sure quick." Rourke raced after Hunter.
"Mr. Holloway?" the driver said.
"Yes." Hunter climbed in and Rourke shut his door and then ran around to the other side.
"Five-twenty-two Sycamore, right?" the taxi driver asked.
Rourke smiled as he entered the cab. "Take us to 1032 Redwood."
"You got it."
"I hadn't thought of giving an alias," Hunter said to Rourke.
Rourke motioned to an old guy standing in front of the hospital, leaning on a cane. "I told you I thought it was awfully quick for the cab's arrival. I think we took his."
Another cab pulled up.
Hunter watched out the back window. "Good. He took ours then."
"Hope he tells him a different address than my place."
When they arrived at the brick apartment complex, Rourke paid the driver and Hunter headed toward the front door.
"You've got a hell of a lot of explaining to do." Rourke fumbled for his keys as he joined Hunter. "Like why I can see in the damned dark? And why I can see things in the distance when I used to have to wear glasses. And hell, why that nurse smelled like a gray wolf--you, too. But also why I knew what a wolf smells like in the first place."
"Yeah, well, you shouldn't have stuck your finger down my throat."
"You tried to spit the pills out. I was trying to push them down farther so you'd swallow them. Wish I hadn't. Well in a way. I mean, I like some of these abilities, but I want to know what I've gotten myself into." Rourke shut the door behind them and turned on the heat. "Here, I'll make the couch into a bed, and you can lie down before Ashton and Tessa show up."
"The couch is fine. I'm feeling better already."
Rourke removed the bandage from his finger. No sign of a bite. "Okay, start talking."
Hunter meant to sit on the couch, but he was wearier than he thought. He reclined instead.
Rourke frowned. "Hell, I thought you were nearly healed."
"Not for a few more days. But I'm healing too fast to stay at a hospital any longer."
Rourke got him a pillow and blanket. "Need any pain medication?"
"Yeah, but this time, keep your fingers to yourself."
"Deed's already done, but believe me, I'll be careful when I'm around you from now on." He left and then returned with a glass of water and two white pills. "Start talking."
"We're lupus garou. Werewolves."
Rourke collapsed on the leather chair in front of the coffee table. "Holy crap. You can't be serious. But damn, you can't be making it up either."
"It's true. When we shapeshift we're like real wolves, except we still have our human reasoning. When we're humans--"
"We have the increased senses of the wolf. I already got that part since I smelled women's scents, pine needles, the shift in the weather from snow to drier conditions." Rourke rubbed the newly sprouted whiskers on his chin. "The antiseptics in the hospital were nearly killing me, they were so strong. And I heard people talking way down the hall--not just talking, but heard what they were saying when I shouldn't have been able to discern a thing. Then my finger began tingling like crazy, and it felt like it was healing at the speed of light. But I couldn't figure out what had happened to me--only that it had to do with you. You really don't remember who you are?"
"No. Only that I have a sister. I'm sure I lead a pack. And three grays pushed me off a cliff north of Tessa's place."
"Because?"
Hunter shrugged. "I might have deserved it. I don't know."
"So," Rourke said, easing back in the chair, "if we bite someone, we turn them?"
"Not always. And we can't when we're human. It would put a damper on our sexual relations with human women if we had to worry about changing them by accident."
"But you bit me! And gave me your condition."
"I bit you, yes. But I'd tangled with the stalker before that. Our mouths clashed a couple of times and I tore his ear. I bit the other two wolves also. Either it was their blood or the stalker's blood or saliva that transferred the genes. We'll never know."
"So you're saying, technically, one of them changed me."
"Technically yes. Because as a human, I couldn't bite you and transfer the condition, but since my teeth opened your skin, it helped the transmission."
Rourke relaxed. "Good, because I thought... well, I worried about Tessa."
"I won't turn her."
"But the stalker--he's a gray and he plans to, don't you think?"
"That's what Yoloff plans. I'm not giving him the chance."
"Yoloff?"
"Yeah, and he has two brothers. The one paid me a visit in the middle of the night, figuring he could slip Tessa out from under my nose. I broke the one's leg. He'll probably heal in about the same amount of time it takes me to get back to normal."
"Shit. They're not going to give up." Rourke combed his fingers through his hair. "So what are the negative aspects of being a lupus garou?"
"Having the uncontrollable urge to become a wolf when the moon is out, particularly strongest when it's the full moon, although it's not a constant craving. Once we fulfill the urge to hunt, we can manage several weeks without changing again. On the other hand, I've never personally known anyone who was changed by a bite, so it might be a little different for you."
"What do you mean?"
"Most of us were born lupus garou."
Rourke's eyes widened. "How many of you are there? I had the impression that a wild wolf had some kind of a weird virus and infected a few people."
"We have no idea how many there truly are of us. Since we live in secret, most of us only know about our local packs. Sometimes we learn of others while we're searching for a mate."
"A mate." Rourke perked up.
"Yeah, and that's one of the more important rules we have to live by. We don't turn humans."
Rourke made a disagreeable face. "Right. Very important to remember that."
"Yeah, otherwise we have to deal with the consequences." Hunter raised a brow.
"Like me."
"Exactly. That's another thing. You're part of my pack now."