Blood of a Werewolf (22 page)

“Overdid those psychic powers again, did you?”

“Apparently!”

“So what happened to Paine?”

“Not absolutely sure.
 
It’s all kind of foggy, but Devon said Blake took care of him – I’m guessing with me bleeding and passed out, he opted to just kill him vampire style and get me to the hospital.”

Just then Blake came blazing through the door, with Devon behind him.
 
Blake’s face was bright with excitement as he saw Rowan.
 

“Rowan, oh man, I was so worried about you!” He rushed to her side and hugged her.
 
Darby, on the other side of the bed, winked at her sister as if to say,
we’ll leave you two alone.

Darby grabbed Devon’s arm and led him out of the room into the hallway.
 
With arms around each other, they walked down the hall slowly to the family waiting room.
 
It was empty now, so they could be alone.

Devon asked, “How are you doing? You sure you don’t need to go and get some rest?
 
We don’t want you checked back in here.”

“No, I’m good.
 
No, I’m great. My sister is awake and you are here holding me.
 
Life is good.”

“But shouldn’t we talk about your sister? I mean the… werewolf thing?”

“I suppose we should but couldn’t we wait until Blake can join us?
 
I say we talk about it later with him and just be thankful that she’s awake right now.
 
I mean, we don’t even know how one becomes a werewolf.
 
Maybe it doesn’t have anything to do with the blood.”

“Either way, introducing someone else’s blood to another person is not good.”

“I know. Believe me, I know.
 
But we also have to be happy for what we do have instead of what we might not have.
 
You need to savor the good things, even if they are tiny or far and few between, otherwise, you get drawn down into all the bad and ugly.
 
I know we may have some very high hurdles to jump in the near future, but let’s just remember to enjoy the good when it’s in front of us and deal with the bad when we have to.”

“You have a wonderful way of looking at life.
 
Not many people look at things quite the way you do.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“As you should,” he said and leaned over to kiss her.
 

When he pulled back, she opened her eyes and said, “I know it hasn’t been, but it seems like it’s been a year ago since we were in Monterey together.”

“You’re right, I guess because so much has happened in such a short amount of time, it just seems longer.”

This time she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him passionately and he returned it eagerly.
 
Suddenly, he pulled back and said, “Umm, Miss O’Rielly, we’re in a hospital.”

“Yeah, so?”

“Well, um, I don’t feel comfortable.”

“What did you think I was going to do, rip your clothes off? Silly boy!
 
I just wanted to give you a little taste of what you’re in for when we get home, Mr. Bloomington.”

With a raise of his eyebrows, he said, “Well, now you’re talking!!!”
 

Chapter 16

Blake came out into the waiting area looking tired and ragged. The room was empty aside from the three of them. He sat down in the chair across from them, collapsing into it with a loud sigh as he did so.

“So what now?” he asked.

Darby answered, “I don’t know. I guess we start looking into werewolves.
 
We are coming up on a full moon soon, and if nothing happens, great! But if something does, then we should know what to expect. What do you think we should do?
 
This involves you the most, Blake.”

“I don’t know.
 
God, what if she is a werewolf now?” He seemed to be miles away in that thought. His eyebrows were furrowed Just as he stared past Darby and Devon in a daze. His expression was that of sadness and anger somehow mixed together in a way Darby had never seen before.

Devon broke the silence. “Well, then we deal with it.
 
If she’s a werewolf now, we help her through it, but we certainly don’t give up trying to figure this out.”
 

“You’re right, Devon.
 
We need a plan. How about this? Blake, when you’re not in with Rowan, why don’t you get on your computer and try doing some searches on the Wolfe family.
 
Go through Benjamin’s wallet and see if there is anything in there that can provide us with a lead to his family.

“Devon, you can do some web searching too. Maybe we should make sure the Paine issue really is gone.
 
You could do some background checks on Paine and his thugs.
 
Just make sure there isn’t anyone else after you two.
 
Blake grabbed everything out of the safe and if I remember correctly there was a leather book in there. Maybe it’s a ledger or a diary. That may be a good place to start.

“I can send a message to Allison to start gathering books on werewolves for us.
 
In the meantime, I will start going through that ancient book that was on Paine’s desk. When I get home I’ll go through the book of shadows and see if there is anything in there about werewolves. I’ve never seen anything but that doesn’t mean it’s not there.
 

“As for Rowan, for now she can work on healing and getting herself out of this place.
 
We might not get a lot done while we are here in the hospital, but at least we know what direction to head in when we do.
 
Once Rowan’s home, she can do some reading and once we have some leads maybe she can do a rune reading or something.”

“Good, good. That’s great, Darby. Isn’t it, Blake?” Blake was still in his daze and Devon wanted him to focus on something constructive, rather than whatever dark thoughts were going on in his head. Blake had been blocking his thoughts from Devon, but Devon could tell it was nothing good.

Blake answered, “Yeah. Great, Darby – get on the computer and get info on wolves.”

“Not wolves, Blake, Benjamin Wolfe,” Devon corrected.

“Yeah. Wolfe. That’s what I said.”

The rest of the morning was extremely frustrating and boring.
 
Now that Rowan was awake, all that anyone could think of was
Let’s go home
.
 
Now that Rowan was awake and seemingly fully recovered, they thought of grabbing Rowan and leaving, but Darby told the boys it would draw too much attention. They were hoping that the tests that had been done didn’t reveal anything that would raise any red flags.
 
In fact, they hoped the werewolf blood would not become an issue at all, but they all knew that might be wishful thinking. So they sat there and waited.

Rowan’s doctor showed up sometime before 2:00 P.M.
 
Aside from a slight elevation in temperature, he couldn’t see any reason to keep her in the hospital. Most of the tests were back and everything looked fine.
 
The tests that had not come in he would forward to her doctor back in California.
 
He said if she wanted to go home, he would discharge her at 5:00 P.M..
Great, more waiting
. At least they could look into flights and maybe be home in the next 24 hours.

The next few hours went slowly, but Devon was able to get them booked on the 7:15 P.M. flight out with an hour layover in DC, arriving at SFO at 12:26 A.M.
 
With that bit of good news, the waiting didn’t seem quite as hard.
 

Once on the plane, it was time to kick back and let the pilot do all the work.
 
Still concerned about what was to come, the fact they were on their way home was a huge weight off everyone’s shoulders.

Blake still seemed to be in a daze and Darby could tell Devon was worried about him.
 
Blake was an expert at blocking his thoughts, especially from Devon, so there was no chance at finding out that way.
 
Devon tried to talk to him while the others were dozing, to no avail.

During the layover in DC, Darby called Allison to check in.
 
Allison said all was well. She had been a bit worried about Harry since he hadn’t shown up back at the house for quite some time, but he must have gotten hungry and his stomach forced him back home.
 
He was safe and sound at home now.
 
She told Darby he was a tad bit jumpy, but looked none the worse for it.
 
The store was fine, same old, same old.

Darby told her they would be back late that evening, early Friday morning. She would come in for a couple of hours Friday to do payroll and check her messages.

She asked Allison then to do an inventory search and pull any books about werewolves she could find.
 
Thanking Allison, Darby said she’d explain when she saw her.
 

The next flight was uneventful and that was just fine with everyone.
 
No one got much sleep on the plane, but it was certainly less stressful than it had been on the flight to Maine.
 

It was nice to be back.
 
Even the Mercedes felt like home.
 
With sleepy passengers, the ride home was very quiet.
 
Even once they got home and entered the house, no one said a word.
 
Blake and Rowan paired off to Rowan’s room and shut the door as Darby and Devon headed back to Darby’s. They hit the pillows, fully dressed, minus shoes, and slept blissfully until late afternoon.
 
Darby was the first to get up, feeling she needed to get to the Cauldron, Book and Candle before closing.
 
She had promised Allison, after all, and she rarely broke her promises. She quietly tiptoed to the bathroom, took a shower and got dressed.

She wrote a note to her sleeping prince and his furry sidekick, Harry, who was now taking up her entire side of the bed with his head on her pillow. She put a note on the table next to the bed that read:

Sweetheart,

Promised Allison I’d come in to do payroll. Be back soon.

Love you

D

 
“Allison, thanks again for holding down the fort and taking care of Harry!
 
I always knew you were great, but now you have exceeded ‘Greatness’ to become ‘Totally Awesome’.”

Allison replied, “Does the new title have a raise attached to it?”

“If business keeps up, you bet!
 
Hey, what did you do to your neck? That’s the strangest looking hickey I’ve ever seen,” Darby joked.

“Oh, didn’t I tell you? I’m dating a vampire!” Allison said.

Darby just about choked on her soda.
 
Loving the rise she got out of Darby, Allison said, “Kidding! You know, you just about blew that through your nose.
 
I can tell you from experience, carbonation does nothing for your sinuses. But seriously, I think it’s a bug bite or something.
 
Got it last week sometime.”