Black Magic Rose (19 page)

As he drew closer to the exit from the Lower Level, the racket coming from the upper levels neared the riot stage. Between the howling wolves and yelling vampires there might have been a mutiny occurring.
 

Dragomir raced up the stairs from the Lower Level onto the ground floor and into the ER. Raised voices and chanting came from behind the doors. Metal clanged. He pushed open the doors and found the nurses and Dr. Schwartz gathered around the nurse’s station arguing over takeout menus and who would go pick up dinner. Clipboards clattered as nurses argued over Chan’s or Asian Dynasty while two technicians and Jamieson chanted for Italian and banged metal charts against a filing cabinet. The three men pounded out a beat and demanded Gino’s Rustic Kitchen.

Dr. Schwartz glanced over, grinned, and pointed up, then loudly made the argument for Italian because they’d ordered Chinese last time.
 

Dragomir gritted his teeth. He marched out the door and bolted toward the stairwell. Not being able to track Sofia was becoming a nuisance. Every wasted stop he made meant she continued to dangle in peril’s way. The woman was going to be the death of him.
 

He took the stairs three at a time, finally getting so frustrated he launched himself up the last flight to hit the landing with a hard thud. The voices coming through the open doorway indicated chaos had broken out.
 

Rick and Osgar were shifted, but the tone of their gravelly growls was different than usual. The pitch was higher. Dragomir registered shock instead of anger. The wolves were surprised by something.
 

She has to be up here.
He pushed open the door and heard Fergus say, “Sofia, please come into the office.” He was pleading, not demanding or suggesting.
 

“How the hell are you doing that?” Meg asked.
 

“And I don’t see why you constantly resort to this response whenever you don’t get your way!” Sofia shouted.
 

Dragomir entered the third floor hallway.
 

Osgar stood in front of Rick. Meg and Fergus stood behind Sofia, Meg tugging on Sofia’s waist. Sofia faced the shifted wolves, using one hand to push Osgar aside and the other to jab at Rick’s chest.
 

Rick snarled.
 

Dragomir took one step forward, prepared to block any attempt Rick made to harm Sofia, but he didn’t move another inch. The woman seemed to have complete control over Rick.
 

Sofia’s green eyes held all the angst she’d been carrying for days. They narrowed and her gaze centered on the stunned werewolf standing in front of her. Dragomir was glad Rick was on the receiving end of that look. That was an expression he never wanted aimed at him.
 

“Oh, don’t give me that. I don’t want to hear it. You’re not even willing to see my side.” This time Sofia lunged at Osgar. Meg’s hold on her waist slipped and Sofia slammed into him. He stumbled back and fell through the doorway into the conference room. Sofia scrambled to her feet and closed the door between them.
 

She flipped back the waves of black tresses tumbling over her face and sent that florally scent wafting into the air. Dragomir silently inhaled.
 

Not jasmine. Definitely not.
 

“And furthermore…” Sofia turned to Rick, finger poised to jab into his chest. “…I have been nothing but reasonable with you. I’ve been shocked, but reasonable. It is not out of the realm of rational thought to ask you to develop and share a training plan.” Rick stepped back until he was pressed against the wall. She followed, poking the entire way. “It is not an outrageous leap to believe tossing a man off a building and breaking his ankles every night is cruel. Especially, when you know he’s terrified of heights.” Her finger drilled into Rick.
 

He growled something.
 

“Unacceptable. No.” She shook her head.
 

The conference room door opened and Osgar came out rubbing his head, no longer in wolf form. “Sofia! Dude! Come on. How do you know what he’s saying?”

“Not now, Osgar.” It was the only acknowledgement Sofia gave him. “Well? What’s it going to be?” She jammed her hands on her hips. “Are you giving me the training plan or are we going with zero tolerance on the Workplace Violence Policy?”

Dragomir’s eyebrows rose and he bit back a smirk. He had no doubt she’d try it, but no faith it would pass. Training wolves or vampires without some violence was an absolute impossibility.
 

Rick grumbled something.
 

“That’s what I thought. I’ll expect it on my desk tomorrow morning.”
 

Meg’s mouth dropped.
 

Fergus stuttered. “So…So…” He scratched his head and rubbed his beard, then gaped at his wife.
 

“Where the hell have you been?” Osgar snapped at Dragomir.

Sofia turned from Rick and her eyes widened just a touch when she faced Dragomir. Her mouth dropped open for a split second and then clamped shut into a tight line. She straightened her skirt, yanked her shirt hem down, fixed her jacket sleeves, and adjusted her collar. Her fingers fussed with a brightly colored scarf then she pulled her hair around her neck.
 

Desire bolted through Dragomir. He forced himself to remain where he stood, not to go to her, take her in his arms, and kiss her like no man had ever kissed her. His mouth watered and he clamped his jaw shut.
 

Sofia’s left eye narrowed while her right eyebrow inched up. “We don’t need you. I have Osgar.” She glanced toward Osgar and her mouth dropped open again. She spun around, turning her back to him. “Maybe you could put on some clothes.”

Dragomir nodded toward Osgar. “And I see he did an admirable job of keeping you safe by falling into the conference room.”
 

The tone of his voice was deeper than Dragomir had intended, surprising not only himself, but catching Sofia’s attention as well. She glanced in his direction, and he had to remind himself not to go to her. He was fairly certain she’d do worse than give him that glare if he groped her again. Not to mention what Jankin would do.

“She caught me off guard.” Osgar rubbed his head again. “You’d have been knocked over, too, if she suddenly started reading vampire minds or something. She understands us when we’re in our wolf form.”
 

“It’s shocking,” Meg said. “Sofia, how long have been able to do this?” Meg’s tone was less than encouraging. An angry alpha female was, generally speaking, more dangerous than a male. As Dragomir remembered they were more unpredictable.
 

He stepped closer to the group, shooting a sharp look at Meg.

She nodded. “How long?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t know I really could until just this conversation.” She waved toward Rick and peeked over her shoulder. “It’s because of him. If he didn’t constantly become
that
whenever we meet, I wouldn’t have to learn to understand him.” She looked down at the floor and sidestepped toward her office.
 

Rick growled.
 

Dragomir positioned himself between Rick and Fergus, keeping one eye on Rick and trying not to watch every move Sofia made.

“It’s not like I understand every wolf,” she snapped, caught another glimpse of Osgar, and shuffled a few steps closer to her door.
 

Shoeless. Interesting.
Dragomir took in the entire package. She was not quite as fashionable as she’d been every other day. Today her clothes didn’t fit right, she had on a silly scarf knotted like one of those cowboy bandanas, and he was pretty sure the colors of everything didn’t go together.

Her silky black hair fell past her shoulders, framing her face. The dark locks made her eyes appear brighter than usual. He had the desire to run his hands through her hair, down her shoulders, and over her entire body.
 

She bit her lip.
 

Was he making her nervous or was she finally realizing she’d tried to go hand-to-hand with a werewolf more than three times her size?
 

“But the only non-wolf who can understand a wolf in this form is the master vampire bound to him.” Meg stared from Rick to Sofia to Dragomir and finally at Fergus. “Do you know why this is happening?”
 

“No. I’ve never seen this before. Not once have I ever encountered a human who could speak to wolves.” Fergus pulled out his cell phone and scrolled for a number.
 

Sofia walked toward her office. “Great. Now I’m the werewolf whisperer.”
 

Less than a full ring completed before Jankin answered Fergus’s call. “Jankin, Sofia seems to be able to speak to the wolves.”
 

Dragomir heard Jankin’s response. “She
speaks
to them?”

“In English. But she understands them as though they were speaking English to her. Do you know the explanation for this?”

Jankin remained silent for several seconds. “I’ll be up.”
 

“Get dressed. Both of you,” Fergus said. “And do not mention this to anyone.” He walked back to his office. Meg followed, the pained look in her eyes said she knew this was a problem.
 

Dragomir followed Sofia to her office. He leaned in the doorway. “Have you ever seen a werewolf in wolf form before the incident with Rick in the conference room the other day?”

“No. And don’t come in.” She faced her computer screen, but every few seconds her eyes darted to the left, then back to the computer.
 

“So just two days ago you had your first encounter. At that meeting did you understand what Rick was saying to you?” Dragomir crossed the threshold.
 

She glanced in his direction and huffed. “I told you not to—”

“Answer the question.”

“He wasn’t talking to me. He was talking about me.” She turned back to the computer. “And it wasn’t very nice.”
 

“You didn’t mention it.”
 

“No one asked.”
 

Dragomir nodded and walked to the window. In the distance a very small glow faded into the horizon. Night had fallen. He watched Sofia’s reflection in the window. She shuffled papers and straightened little piles on her desk. Every five or six seconds she glanced at him. When she bent over to reach for something below the desk her hair fell forward, covering her face. He hid a smile as he watched her watching him through the dark curtain.

“You are full of surprises, Ms. Engle.”
 

“Look who’s talking.” She ducked beneath the desk to reach for something and her chair shot backward dumping her on the floor. “Damn it.”
 

“Are you all right?”
 

“Fine. Just stay over there. And you’re not supposed to be in here.” She sounded as though she was in a cave.
 

A blue high-heel shoe appeared on the desk. Beside it she tossed a flat loafer, similar to ones he’d owned, only blue and much smaller. She crawled up into the chair and slipped the loafer on then unbuckled the strap of the sandal and placed it on her other foot. “You have a lot of explaining to do,” she whispered in a harsh tone and glanced from Dragomir to the door and back.
 

“Yes. You must learn to disengage.” Dragomir remained calm, unaffected. “Why are you wearing two different shoes?” She certainly had a way of keeping him perplexed.
 

“Never mind. It’s not your business,” she huffed and bent over to secure the strap to her ankle. Her nimble fingers worked the tiny clasp.
 

His gaze ran the length of her leg up to her knee. A well-defined calf muscle drew his attention. The way her leg looked in that heel made his mouth water. Even her reflection excited him. He maintained a slow pulse and tried only to breathe when he spoke. But he struggled. Being this close to her made him want to pin her against the wall, rip her clothes off, and grind himself into her until she screamed in ecstasy.
 

He couldn’t even consider turning around at this point. She’d see her effect on him.
Why the hell is this happening?
He’d encountered plenty of other beautiful women in his existence. Most of whom did not argue about the meaning of his world. Why was this happening now?
 

Could Jankin have been correct?
 

Dragomir quickly ran through a series of ideas that should have quelled his desire: fish guts, target practice, werewolf breath. When none of it worked he called up the vivid images of headless men in battle. The gruesome pictures did the trick.
 

“Tonight we practice disengaging.” He turned to face her.
 

“We are not practicing anything tonight or any other night.” She stood up. “You are not to come onto my property or into my house or my office or near me ever again. You animal.” Again her hands flew to her hips. Little fists resting on those lovely curves.

Dragomir smiled. He rather enjoyed her antics. Dramatic. Over-the-top. Silly. Her face reddened. She was just getting started. He sat on the windowsill and waited.