CHAPTER 16
I found Shadow walking past the truck and caught up to him just down the road. "Mind telling me where we're going to go after we get to your car?" I questioned him.
"To my home. Yours may no longer be safe," he told me.
"And your home is where?" I persisted.
"I have a townhouse two dozen blocks from here," he explained.
"A shadow with a townhouse? Trying to hide from the sun?" I quipped.
He cracked a smile. "Something like that."
I spotted a dirty jeep a quarter mile down the road. Shadow unlocked the vehicle and we slid into the seats. There was a cup holder between us with a tall, closed-lid water bottle in it. I picked it up and shook it. Something sloshed around.
"Shadows need to drink now, too?" I wondered.
Shadow started the car and turned us around. "It's water. You can have some if you want," he offered.
My mouth felt like a desert, but I put the water bottle down. "Pass."
Shadow picked up the water bottle and downed some of the contents. He held it out to me. "Do you still think it's drugged?" he asked me.
I frowned, but took the water bottle from him and drank some of the stuff. It was water, clear and cold. "Thanks," I replied as I dropped the bottle back into its holder.
"Don't mention it," he answered.
I looked out the window at the rusted warehouses and alleys used as dumps by the city's poor. My face was reflected in the mirror, and did I look awful. I was as pale and dry as an old sub sandwich, and there were dark lines under my eyes that looked like I'd botched a makeup job.
"So are you going to tell me who those guys were?" I spoke up without turning away from the window.
Shadow sighed. "They were members of a-a rival gang."
I glanced at him. "I know a lot of gangs. Which one was it?"
"Garu."
I raised an eyebrow. "I don't know that one. What neighborhoods do they control?"
"Half the town."
I folded my arms across my chest. "If they controlled half the town I'd know about it," I insisted.
"They make it their business not to let you know they're existence," he countered.
"So what else do they deal in besides kidnapping?" I asked him.
Shadow pursed his lips. "Everything. Drugs. Blackmail. Theft. Nothing is too low for them."
"So you're telling me there's this all-powerful gang controlling and terrorizing half the city and its crime, and the police don't know about them?" I pointed out.
"Yes."
I leaned back in my seat and snorted. "Are you insane?"
"If only I was. . ." he murmured.
I cast a glance at him. He looked straight ahead and his bright eyes didn't blink. I'd never seen a guy look so serious except when he was about to ask a girl to marry him. I jerked my chin at him. "Okay, say I believe you about this gang. What's your angle with them?"
"Mortal foes, if you'll pardon the dramatic expression," he explained.
"Uh-huh. So you're some sort of a superhero fighting against a shadowy crime syndicate?" I wondered.
"Not exactly. You can say that I control the other half of the city, but with a softer hand," he admitted.
My eyes narrowed as I looked at Shadow. "A crime lord's a crime lord, period. How little pressure you put on the people doesn't matter."
A half-grin slipped onto his lips and he shrugged. "Perhaps, but I'm all that stands between Garu and this city sinking into a cesspool of misery."
"It's easy to spout off how good you are when you're not telling me the whole story," I retorted.
"If I promised to tell you everything when we reached my home, would that give you any comfort?" he countered.
"It'd be something better than being kept in the dark," I returned.
"Then I'll tell you when we arrive," he promised.
"Good." I shifted in my seat. "So how far again is this place?"
"Just a few more minutes," he assured me.
I looked through the front windshield and pulled at my shirt collar. "Good, because this car's getting stuffy."
"It's not the car. Your body is reacting to the setting sun."
I whipped my head to him. "Say what?"
He nodded at the dim light in the east. "The setting sun warns when the wolf inside you is about to rise."
A rush of heat swelled over me and I squirmed in my seat. "Wolf? What the hell are you talking about?" I questioned him.
"There is a feral beast inside you that you can't control. It knows this and manifests itself every evening," he explained.
"Bullshit. It's just you giving me drugs." My eyes widened and I glanced down at the water bottle. I snatched it and clenched it in my hand. "You asshole! You son of a bitch! You put something in this, didn't you?"
"Something that affects you but not me?" he countered.
"You've got an immunity or something to it." I threw the water bottle onto the floor at his feet and grabbed my door handle. I pulled it back, but it wouldn't budge. I looked over my shoulder and scowled at Shadow. "Unlock the door!"
"You feel a sensation of heat, don't you?"
"Yeah, because you spiked the drink, now open the door!"
"But that's not the only sensation. You feel like something's inside you clawing its way out. Something primitive and wild, something you can't control," he mused.
I ground my teeth together. The heat inside me rose to a fevered pitch. I felt my sweat-soaked, dirt-stained shirt stretch as my breasts swelled. My hands flexed in front of me and lengthened into claws. I panted for air. My muscles tensed and stretched, tearing open my pants. When I spoke my voice was deep and had a growling tremble to it.
"Let me out!" I demanded.
"No."
I wasn't in the mood for that word. I snarled and dove at him. My seat belt jerked me back against my seat, and I clawed at the clasp to get it open and get my hands on his throat. Shadow swiftly knelt down and snatched the water bottle from his feet. He unscrewed the lid and threw the contents in my face.
The ice-cold water washed over me like a wet towel. It dampened whatever was inside me and brought me back to sanity. Water dripped from my hair as I blinked at him. My chest heaved up and down and I grasped the sides of the chair, but I was my self again.
I ran a hand through my wet hair and scrunched my eyes shut. My whispered voice was hoarse and tense. "What the hell is that?"
"I told you. The wolf," he reminded me.
I opened my eyes and turned to him. He avoided my eyes. "It. . .it really isn't drugs, is it?"
He shook his head. "No."
"Then what the hell is wrong with me?"
"You are now a werewolf, and I'm to blame."
CHAPTER 17
I couldn't believe I was hearing this bullshit from anybody, and he honestly looked like he wanted me to believe it. Shadow's face certainly showed me he believed it.
"Seriously? That's the best piece-of-crap reason you can give me? That all this trouble I've been having with this heat in my body, it's all because I'm a werewolf?" I questioned him.
"It's unbelievable, I know, but it's true. You're now a werewolf," he insisted.
"Stop the car."
"I won't. Not until you believe me."
"I said stop the car!" I reached over and grabbed the wheel. I tried to turn it, but he held it straight and steady. The thing didn't budge an inch towards me. "Stop the god damn car!"
Shadow slammed on the brakes, yanked the wheel to the right, and the car screeched to a stop by the side of the road. The neighborhood we were in wasn't much to look at. Brick apartment buildings with rusted fire escapes and alleys that invited drug dealers into their shadows.
Shadow shut off the jeep and turned his head to me. His voice was tense with a touch of anger. "Why do you find it so unbelievable? What in these last few days makes you doubt what I say?"
"Because what you're saying is nuts," I argued. "Werewolves? Really? Maybe in a bad hor
ror movie, but this is reality. They don't exist, so I can't be one."
"But they do, and you are. I bit you, and that makes you a werewolf," he insisted.
"No, that makes me in the hospital for a few days with the worst hickey in the world," I quipped. "There's nothing werewolfy about a guy biting a girl on the neck. Just sick."
"What about how fast it healed?" he argued. I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. I didn't have an explanation for that. "What about your transformation? Look at yourself."
I glanced down at my torn jeans and swollen breasts. "Just. . .just drugs. The ones you've been giving me," I countered.
He shook his head. "I haven't given you anything but a curse, though I couldn't do any worse with that. You're a werewolf, and the sooner you admit that the sooner we can begin to transition you into a new life."
I cut the air in front of my with my hands. "No. No new life, no werewolves, just facts," I insisted.
"I am giving you facts, but you're taking them as legend. What more do I need to show you to convince you that you are no longer humans?" he questioned me.
I snatched the door handle and pulled. "A miracle, which is something that you and God are gonna have to find without me," I retorted.
Shadow reached over and grabbed my hand. My eyes widened as I watched his fingers lengthen into claws. Fur sprouted from his skin just above the wrist and covered his hand in soft tufts. I felt the muscles ripple and shift, and his grip tightened like a steel vice over my hand.
He yanked my hand off the handle and forced me to turn towards him. His eyes were a stop-light yellow that glowed in the dim light of the setting sun, and his teeth slipped over his lips like a bad denture job. Fur sprouted from his sideburns and his hair grew out until it hit his shoulders where it stopped. His voice was deep, gravelly, and definitely not human.
"Now do you believe me?" he asked me.
I wasn't easy to shake up, but this had me quaking like a suspect about to hear the verdict in his murder trial. I leaned away and tried to yank my hand out of his paw. He pulled me closer and the seat belt cut into my chest. His face was only inches from mine, and his breath blew over me.
"Well?" he growled.
I grimaced and turned my head. "I'll believe you're anything with that breath," I quipped.
Shadow blinked at me for a moment, and then a grin slipped onto his lips. He chuckled and released me. I fell back into my chair and slipped down so my back was against the part of the door below the window. He leaned back and held his hand up in front of him.
"You amaze me," he commented. My eyes widened when I noticed the fur disappeared from his face and his fingers changed back to their normal look. "Some people lose their minds under this much physical and mental strain, but you crack jokes."
I sat up, but kept my back against the door. "I guess it keeps me sane," I commented.
He dropped his hand and turned to me. "After seeing what I can do, do you still think I'm insane?" he wondered.
I pursed my lips and shook my head. "No, but you've got one hell of a hair problem."
Shadow chuckled and started the car. "I suppose that's one optimistic way of looking at it, but unfortunately it's the least of my-our worries right now."
"And what's our biggest worry?" I asked him.
"Getting you safe. The men who kidnapped you learned a great deal about you and might have passed that on to their employer," he pointed out.
I leaned back in my seat and crossed my arms over my chest. It was a pain getting my arms over my huge breasts. "That isn't going to be easy if their employer owns half the city."
"But you forget that I own the other half, and my townhouse is located there," he told me.
I frowned. "Why are you going to all this trouble for me, anyway? Aren't I just a chewy snack that your teeth didn't finish off?"
His smile fell off his face and he shook his head. "No, you're my responsibility. I never wanted to get you involved, but I couldn't just stand there and watch you bleed to death in that alley."
I raised an eyebrow. "How involved am I?"
"To use your own police terms, you're part of the investigation," he replied.
I snorted. "That I guessed, and that reminds me. What was going on in that alley that night between you and those guys? I heard you mention that moonstone that doc owns and the other guy not wanting to fork it over."
Shadow pursed his lips. "That is the source of all these problems. The moonstone is-"
I held up a hand. "Some magical item that turns people into werewolves. I know. A friend told me."
He raised an eyebrow. "Who's this friend of yours?"
"I don't reveal my sources, but my friend said a lot of people were looking for that moonstone," I told him.
"And did your friend mention who those people were?" he asked me.
"The two guys you dropped in the river, and some other higher-ups he wouldn't give names to. Speaking of that river, you really need to do a better job hiding your furry tracks. I spotted them a mile away," I commented.
His eyebrows crashed down over his eyes. "Where did you find these tracks?"
I straightened. "Where the bodies were found," I told him. I noticed his eyes narrowed. "That isn't where you dumped the bodies, is it?" I guessed.
"No. I dumped them a mile further upstream, and I didn't visit where the police pulled them out," he revealed.
"So what I saw was what? The competition?" I guessed.
"I would guess that's who it was," he agreed.
"I thought you said these guys were good at being shadows," I reminded him.
"They are. That's why I would further guess that's how they found you. They left those tracks for a werewolf to follow, and they followed you in return," he surmised.
I growled and slammed my fist against the dashboard. "Damn it! It was a trap and I. . .I-" I pulled back my hand and saw I'd left a dent the shape of my hand. "Holy shit. . ." I muttered.
"It's generally considered a curse, but 'holy shit' can describe being a werewolf," he told me.
I raised my hand in front of my face and flexed my fingers. They looked normal. "I don't feel any different," I pointed out.
"No, but you shouldn't. Your new body is fitted to you. It's an evolutionary asset not to stumble over your new muscles and-" his eyes flickered to my breasts, "-assets."
I wrapped my arms over my chest and narrowed my eyes. "Watch it, boy. I've punched a guy for less."
"I don't doubt it," he replied. His eyes looked away from me and back to the road. The streets had less trash and more traffic. We passed new apartment buildings and luxury condos. "You now have superhuman strength, senses, and speed, and the aging process has slowed."
I brushed my hand over the dent. "No aging? That wasn't in any of the fairy tales," I quipped.
He chuckled. "No, it's mostly attributed to vampires, but werewolves are also long-lived."
"How old are we talking about?" I asked him.
"Quite old." He turned off onto a side street and the buildings changed.
We were on streets that showed off shiny old townhouses. They were the narrow kind with four stories and a rental bill that would've drained my salary dry. Even the lit streetlights looked down on me as we passed by them. There was also a lot of hills. You couldn't see down any of the blocks because hills blocked the view.
"We're almost to my house. I hope you don't mind a change of atmosphere," he told me.
"You mean from depressing to snobby? I can live with that, but on my terms," I warned him. I looked out the window and watched the tall houses fly by. The last rays of the sun were disappearing behind the horizon of tall buildings. "So werewolves live in these things like normal people?"
"Yes, but what's this about your terms?" he asked me.
I turned to face him. "I play by my rules, and that means if I want to leave, I leave."
He pursed his lips. "That wouldn't be a good idea."
"Maybe not, but it's one I'm going to follo
w," I returned.
"We'll see what to do when we arrive," he countered.
CHAPTER 18
Shadow parked the car a half a block down and shut off the engine. He leaned into my seat and nodded out my window. "There she is. Home."
I looked at the building. It was a brick townhouse with four floors, a basement, and enough age to call me 'kid.' The floors were thirty feet across and a short stoop led up to the first floor. The siding color was white, the roof red, and the normalness of the place off the scales.
Shadow got out of the car and I followed him up the stoop. He unlocked the door, swung it open, and stepped to the side. "Ladies first," he offered. I crossed my arms and planted my feet. He shrugged and walked inside first.
I stepped inside and had to admit it was a nice pad. Real wood floors, paneled walls, modern furniture with enough sharp angles to make a politician jealous, and a smell that screamed 'housekeeper.' Shadow closed the door behind me and gestured to the stairs in front of the door.
"Let me show you to your room," he suggested.
I shrugged. "If you want, but I don't plan on making this a long visit."
He led me up the stairs, then up another flight of stairs. We stopped on the third floor. The whole floor was one large bedroom. The only privacy from the stairs was a thin dividing wall with a door. The bedroom had a bed that would've fit an elephant. A table and chairs sat in the middle of the room. There was a closet at the back near the bed, and the front was lit by the exterior wall that looked out on the street. Thin curtains blocked out some of the view.
"I hope you like it. My bedroom's just above yours if you need me," he told me
"Not bad," I commented as I strolled over to the table that stood in the center of the room.
Shadow walked over to the closet. He slid open the door and revealed a row of clothes. "I thought you would be coming here and prepared a few clothes for you."
"Wanting to get me into some clothes so you can rip them off me?" I quipped.
He smiled. "Something like that." He walked to the front, street-facing wall. "Let me show you the best part," he requested. He flung aside the curtains and I saw there was a balcony outside the windows.
Now here was something I could use. An escape. I walked over and peeked out the open door that led onto the balcony. The drop over the railing was a good thirty feet. I had a view over the crest of the hill to the right and saw the street took a nose-dive towards the inner part of the residential area. "The view isn't as comparable to your alley and brick wall, but I hope you'll come to like it."