Black Wolf (47 page)

"I don't think
so."

"Are you sure?
Zarah's a great cook, she told me she was going to make
steak..."

"I don't think
so," he repeated. He returned the cards to the envelopes in the
backs of the books, and stood up with them. Gisela obligingly moved
out of his way so he could go shelve them. Maybe she got the hint:
she went to join Caitryn.

Between Gisela
being determined to make friends with him, Kevin being equally
determined to get answers about what he'd seen during the fight in
the city, and Samantha throwing covert murderous glares in his
direction at every opportunity, he was growing tired of Haven
rather quickly.

Ah, well, if
he could just put up with it a bit longer, he could leave. As soon
as he was sure Jess would
stay
this time. Things certainly
looked promising.

He spent most
of the remainder of the evening reading, around helping one high
school student track down some information and signing out books
for a few people.

Afterwards, he
checked that the lights were off and the door locked, and walked to
the Brewery.

Jess appeared
almost as soon as Shaine sat down.

"I really can
get home by myself, y'know. You don't have to wait. I told you that
already," Jess said, his tone pure exasperation.

"And I didn't
pay any attention then, either."

Jess sighed.
"Pepsi?"

"Mmhmm."

"I'll be right
back."

The Brewery
was fairly empty for nine o'clock on a Thursday. Shaine closed his
eyes, listening to the murmur of voices from the few tables
occupied. The quiet was rather soothing, in fact, it was like wind
teasing the waves, voices singing harmonies to it and each
other...

"Want anything
else?" Jess asked, drawing him out of the fantasy before he could
sink into it any more deeply.

Shaine shook
his head, took a swallow of the glass of cola in front of him, and
banished the brief flash of longing and homesickness. "I'll yell if
I want you."

"I'm sure you
will." He left to see to another table.

He
concentrated on his drink, on the ice cubes and the bubbles, and
tried hard not to think about anything else. Haven was very
different from his home, and yet, in some sense it felt very
similar. That was another reason why he'd have to leave, it was too
hard to keep the memories away here.

Someone slid
into the chair across from him; he looked up, ready with a retort
that would cut like an ice-frosted whip, but it died unspoken when
he recognized Samantha. Now what?

"Yes?" he said
coolly.

"What are your
intentions towards Jess?" Samantha asked bluntly.

"My own
business, and his."

"Jess has been
hurt enough. I don't want it to happen again."

"We're in
agreement on one point, then." How much did she know? He couldn't
recall ever seeing her before, but that meant little; it was
possible, barely, that she was another survivor. Did that make him
responsible for her too?

He decided it
didn't. Just trying to get Jess straightened out took enough
effort.

"It's hardly
keeping him from being hurt to encourage him to stay on the
streets."

Shaine reached
out and pinned both her wrists to the table. "Don't you dare tell
me how to look after Jess," he told her, matching the coldness of
her voice as well as the low volume. "I helped him in the only form
he could accept by the time I found him. I've put myself through
hell you can't possibly understand in order to do it. I chased him
off the fucking streets, and you and your friends chased him right
back onto them. So I'd be real careful who you're accusing of
what."

She jerked her
hands free. "A threat?"

He didn't have
a chance to reply; Jess slapped a hand down in the middle of the
table, startling them both.

"Somehow I
don't think this is a friendly chat," he said quietly. "I'd rather
two of my best friends didn't argue at all, but if you really must,
don't do it here."

"No one's
arguing, Jess," Samantha said, getting to her feet, her eyes never
leaving Shaine's. "We were just... confirming where we all
stand."

Jess growled,
low in his throat. "On the same side, I hope."

"So do I,"
Samantha said. "See you later." She turned and walked away.

"Was it an
argument?" Jess asked Shaine.

Shaine shook
his head. "Just a slight difference of perspective."

"Uh-huh. Will
it help if I ask you not to fight with her?"

"Fine by me,
as long as she leaves me alone."

Jess sighed.
"I thought I was supposed to be the one who's messed up and
paranoid. I guess that's the best I can hope for."

At eleven,
Jess finished work, and they walked home together. Jess told him
all the local gossip he'd picked up tonight; the Brewery tended to
be a focal point for the whole community, and its employees always
seemed to be the first to know things. Most of it meant little to
Shaine, who didn't care about those few whose names he even
recognized, but he listened anyway, out of long habit. Besides, it
filled in the silence between the village and the house, and kept
Jess from asking any further about the brief conversation with
Samantha.

The house was,
for the most part, dark and quiet; they saw no one on the way
upstairs.

Light glowed
from Kevin's open door, brightening the way up the final flight of
stairs more than either of them really needed. Shaine hoped Kevin
would just keep doing whatever he was doing and leave him in peace
for once.

No such luck:
Shaine hardly had time to get comfortable on the window-seat, and
Jess not even enough time to choose music to put on, before Kevin
knocked on the door.

"Heya," Jess
greeted him amiably. "Queensryche okay, Shaine?"

"Sure,
whatever."

"What's up,
Kev?" Jess perched on the arm of the loveseat.

The elf leaned
against the doorway, and held up a trade paperback with a bright
circular design on the cover. "I found a book you might want to
read, since you're always interested in magic history. Someone took
a long look at the myths and legends and folktales of mundanes and
magic-folk, and is trying to make a case for there having once been
more than four races, and other forms of gifts that we no longer
see. Or at least recognize. Especially air and water, to balance
earth and fire. It's really fascinating."

"It sounds
it," Shaine said dryly, resolutely ignoring the clenching in his
stomach. Kevin was too persistent and too intelligent, if he kept
trying he was sooner or later going to figure it out. "So why don't
you go read it?"

Kevin crossed
his arms, and looked at him thoughtfully. "Y'know, one of these
days you might actually say something civil. I will probably faint
from sheer astonishment when it happens, but I am optimistic enough
to believe that it isn't impossible. As it happens, I also wanted
to pass on a message to Jess, that Evaline is trying to get the
whole pack together to go out for a night and you should call
her."

Jess nodded.
"Thanks, I'll give her a call tomorrow."

"You're very
welcome. There are fresh cookies down in the kitchen, get 'em while
you can. And, if I don't see you before tomorrow night, have fun at
supper with Helix."

"Thanks," Jess
repeated.

"Good
night."

"'Night," Jess
echoed, and Kevin left.

"Can't you
relax just a bit?" the wolf said wearily. "I swear to you, it's
safe, one mistake aside. No one's going to kill you if you act a
little less hostile."

Relax? Oh, it
would be so sweet, to be able to relax. "Your friends are your
friends, not mine, and I'd prefer to leave it that way. Tell them
to get the hint and back off, and I'll be less hostile. If they'd
stop asking me nosey questions that are no one's business but mine,
I might even be able to go as far as polite, but I don't think
it'll happen this century."

Jess sighed.
"That's probably the best I can really hope for, I guess. I'm going
to go for a run."

"Alone?"

"Yes, alone. I
won't go far, all right? I'll be back within an hour or two. I just
need to stretch."

"Look what
happened last time you said that."

"Here, I can
have plenty of help in no time flat if I need it. Would you cool
it?" He strode over to the door, and Shaine could hear rapid
footsteps on the stairs down.

Shaine
switched off the light, and went back to the window-seat
overlooking the fountain. Below him, Jess stretched lazily, shifted
smoothly to wolf, and had a drink from the moon-silvered fountain.
He loped out the gate and became merely another bit of the
darkness.

For a long
time Shaine sat still, gazing distantly at the fountain that
shimmered in the silver-blue light.

* * *

Sam stalked up
the stairs to the second floor porch at the back of the pet shop.
The door was locked; she dug in her jacket pocket for her keys,
opened it, and stepped into the kitchen. Automatically, she closed
it behind her and turned the deadbolt; she was ever more paranoid
these days.

She turned
away from the door, narrowly avoided tripping over a chair, and
crossed the kitchen to the living room.

Bryan was
curled up comfortably on the couch with a book, Alfari snuggled
contentedly against his legs and sound asleep; he looked up
immediately. Alfari raised her head, eyes opening halfway, and
yawned delicately.

"What's
wrong?"

"Shaine," she
spat.

"What about
him?"

"Just... oh,
never mind."

"Tell me?
Please?"

Tell him to
get the other wolves and chase Shaine far away from Haven, tell him
Shaine's kind killed in cold blood, tell him he'd be safer trusting
a viper... But how could she prove it? She settled for, "I don't
trust him."

"I don't see
why. He's not exactly summer sunshine, but that's his right. I'd've
thought you'd like him for being so protective of Jess."

"Except that
no one knows why he
is
that protective. Even Jess
doesn't."

Bryan
considered that, stroking Alfari absently. "Don't take this the
wrong way," he said finally, "but no one knows why you're so
protective of Jess, yet no one doubts you have good reasons of your
own."

She flushed.
"That's different!"

"Not from
here."

"You know me.
You don't know anything about him."

"There was a
time I didn't know you, but I decided it was worth trusting you
anyway. I know that Jess trusts him absolutely, and did when he
didn't trust any of us, and that Jess knows him better than we do,
even if he only knows as much about Shaine as I know about you. And
as far as I'm aware, Shaine doesn't have a whole lot of information
about demons that should, by rights, be extremely worrying, or use
an otherwise unknown system of non-innate magic that he won't
discuss with anyone, or give chosen friends rather unusual animal
friends with a few peculiar instructions." He looked at her
quietly. "Just how well do you think you're hiding, Sam? Did you
really think that after so long living with you and Alfari that I
wouldn't start making some guesses? You know something about Jess
and Shaine that for whatever reason you won't tell. Shaine knows it
too. And Jess would if he could remember. I've figured out more
than you think. Including where you came from."

"Don't say it!
Don't say it out loud, please, ever, for Jess' safety..."

"I wasn't
going to. Anything that you've gone to such lengths to not say, I
assume you have a reason for it. In my experience, you usually have
a good reason for anything you do."

She sank down
in a chair, hugged her knees to her chest, her anger draining away.
"I can't tell," she said helplessly. Oh, gods, it would feel so
good to tell him everything, to share the still-powerful grief over
her murdered family. How much had he truly pieced together on his
own? If only she dared...

"I know."
Alfari stretched, padded over to Sam, and jumped up on the arm of
the chair to rub her head against Sam's arm, purring softly; Bryan
watched, not moving. "I've never said anything to anyone, I won't
say it, and I won't ask. You've never given me any reason not to
trust you, really, not even with the demon stuff. But I also have
to trust that Shaine generally has good, or at least neutral,
intentions, because I've seen nothing to indicate anything
different."

Sam rested her
forehead on her knees, unable to bring herself to accept the
offered comfort from either friend. Bryan couldn't understand, and
she couldn't make him see; Alfari and the other three knew, but
didn't seem to acknowledge the threat at all, Hob even accepted
Shaine living in the house with complete equanimity...