Laura's Wolf (Werewolf Marines) (24 page)

Laura skidded up to the front door, flung it open, and tore outside.

A lean brown wolf crouched atop the hood of Donnie’s car.

Fangs bared, the wolf sprang.

Chapter Fourteen: Roy

Fifteen Years of Tears

The ear-shattering sound of Laura’s car faded into the distance. In the silence it left in its wake, the peace Roy had grasped for a moment slipped through his fingers as if he’d clutched a handful of mist.

He wrapped his arms around himself, hunching forward and gritting his teeth. His chest hurt and he couldn’t catch his breath, and he had no idea whether it was because he’d fallen out of a car less than a week after getting shot or if it was due to the after-effects of the car ride or if it was because Laura was gone.

She’d said she’d come back, but that was only delaying the inevitable final parting. She was gone for now, and soon she’d be gone for good.

Suck it up,
Roy told himself, then wondered what the point was of that. She wasn’t there to see whether he was being strong or weak. No one was there. He could suck it up or he could sit down by the side of the road and cry, and he’d be the only person who would ever know or care.

He listened for oncoming cars, then changed. In his powerful wolf’s body, he sprang off the hard surface, landed high up the steep slope, and scrabbled briefly for purchase before finding his balance and beginning to make his way uphill. His grief and loneliness faded as he submerged himself in the scents of the scrubby woods and the easy movement of his body.

When he reached the driveway to the cabin, he again checked for onlookers, then became a man again. As scents dimmed and colors bloomed, a rush of adrenaline jolted him like an electric shock.

Roy spun around, pistol in hand, certain someone was sneaking up on him. No one was in sight. He sniffed the air, but caught no human scents but the lingering traces of Laura’s lemon-sugar.

Nothing was wrong, but all his instincts screamed,
danger, danger, danger!
His heart was going at triple speed. No matter which way he turned, his back and shoulders tensed with the certainty that someone was behind him.

Of course,
Roy thought resignedly.
A panic attack.

He replaced the pistol in his belt, forced himself to breathe deeply and evenly, and reminded himself that there was no actual danger. The only information this fear had to convey was that his nervous system was having yet another glitch. If he ignored it, eventually it would go away.

Or he could become a wolf again. Clearly, wolves didn’t get panic attacks. Wolves had a lot of advantages. Wolves didn’t worry about their buddies or miss people who had only left fifteen minutes ago or—

Laura, something is happening to Laura! Laura is in danger!

Stop it,
Roy told himself.
She’s fine.

It was strange, though; his panic attacks had never attached themselves to a specific idea before. They came after a nightmare or out of the blue, shrieking a warning of absolutely nothing.

Go rescue Laura! Now! Go now!

The impulse was so strong that Roy took a few steps back down the driveway without even intending to move. While he was walking, his heart calmed, his breathing grew easier, the sense of urgency lessened, and his thoughts stopped screaming in his own ears. When he caught himself and stopped, the adrenaline rush and the thought
Laura’s in danger, help Laura
hit him so strongly that he staggered.

It was hard to do any rational problem-solving in the middle of the storm. He spoke aloud, though it made him feel like a lunatic, since it was the only way he could hear himself think.

“Stand still, and it gets worse. Walk toward the cabin…” Roy tried that. “Ow. Much worse. Walk back the way you came from…” He took another step down the driveway. “That’s better.”

He didn’t like the idea of being bossed around by a panic attack. Then again, crazy as it seemed, what if Laura really was in danger? When he’d escaped from the lab, he’d had that odd impulse to head
that way
. If he hadn’t followed it, he’d never have met Laura. What if this Laura-is-in-danger attack was also leading him to her? He’d never believed in psychics or mystical connections, but he’d also never believed in werewolves.

If Laura was fine, Roy could feel like a fool later. If she was in trouble, he’d already wasted far too much time. He became a wolf, and ran.

He retraced his path back to where they’d parted ways, relieved that as a wolf, the pain of that moment was distant and faint, not the raw misery that had driven him to escape into his wolf form. Roy inhaled the scent of Laura’s car’s tires, making sure he could distinguish them from all the other tires that had rolled over the road, and followed them.

A few cars drove by, making him leap into the bushes when there were bushes to leap into and flatten against the cliffside when there weren’t. Then he caught Laura’s own scent. She’d gotten out of the car… walked to the scent of bark and leaves, from the huge branch that was now lying on the side of the road…

Ambush
, Roy thought.
Block the road where she can’t turn around and lure her out of her car.

Sure enough, there was another person’s scent, an unpleasant acridity that reminded Roy of crushed ants. And, still lingering, the sour tang of Laura’s fear.

Roy bolted forward, following the trail to another car and three new people’s scents: one sweet, one fresh like rain, and a third that he recognized, an oily-nutty smell, like toasted almonds. That was the scent of the man who had shot him and tried to kidnap Laura.

This time he’d succeeded.

Roy breathed in the smell of the tires of the car Laura had entered and followed it, forcing himself to stay at a steady trot. He had no idea how far the trail might lead, and he couldn’t exhaust himself running and have no energy left to fight at the end of it.

As a wolf, he stayed focused on his task, following the scent trail along the road, then to a second road, and finally cutting through the forest beside a dirt road until he came to a wall and a locked gate. In the shadows of the trees, Roy became a man again.

To his relief, the panicked urgency had gone. He was worried and angry, but he could think clearly. He climbed a tree and peered over the wall, surveying the compound, the cars, and the mansion. He caught traces of Laura’s scent, along with the scents of others, and spotted her car. But no one was outside.

Roy refused to let his emotions seize control of him and make him follow his first impulse, which was to leap over the wall and break down the front door. He had no idea what was going on, how many enemies there were, what their capabilities were, or what sort of weapons they might have. A frontal attack might get Laura killed. On the other hand, since he didn’t know what the enemy wanted with her, he also didn’t know how much time he had.

He hastily considered his resources. He had the Raven and a six-round magazine; it had come with him, along with his clothes and shoes, when he changed back to human form. He had himself and his long, long list of vulnerabilities.

And he had Laura. Roy bet she wasn’t simply waiting to be rescued, but was busy plotting her own escape. Unfortunately, they had no way to coordinate and were as liable to interfere with each other as they were to help.

On the other hand, the compound didn’t look like a professional set-up. He spotted a couple of booby traps along the walls, but there were no guards. No one had thought to prevent entrance or surveillance via the surrounding trees. The man who’d shot him had carried a cheap gun and fought like an amateur—a skilled and brutal amateur, but one who’d learned from experience rather than training. Roy guessed that he was dealing with criminals, not military or government agents, and small-time criminals at that.

He decided to locate and cut the power to the mansion. That would have the double benefit of allowing him to operate inside and alerting Laura that he was there; she’d know that a power outage on a sunny day had to be Roy on a rescue mission. He’d enter through a window, hopefully catching anyone inside by surprise, and track her by scent or voice.

He was outnumbered and he couldn’t use his gun except as a last resort, but he felt confident that he could take out at least a couple minions, as Laura had called them. Then he could grab her and run.

A man stepped out of the wall of the mansion, passing through it like a ghost. Roy stared in astonishment, then reminded himself that he was a werewolf who was allergic to electricity and had psychically known Laura was in danger. Clearly the world was stranger than he’d ever imagined.

The man was in his early forties, Roy guessed, with craggy features and pale blue eyes. He seemed familiar, though Roy hadn’t seen him before…

…Gregor. He matched Laura’s description of Gregor.

As Roy watched the man become a lean brown wolf and leap atop a car, he realized that the original attack on Laura had probably had nothing to do with the lab or Roy. Gregor must have wanted Laura, whether for revenge or some creepy, stalkery obsession, and
Roy
had been in the way.

Roy considered shooting him dead from the tree, but a gunshot would alert everyone and if Gregor was still intangible, it would be wasted. But at least now he knew where the boss was. Roy decided to cut the power, then enter from the opposite side.

The front door flew open and Laura bolted out, clutching a gun in one hand and a pair of shoes in the other. Before Roy could make a move, the wolf sprang at her.

Roy leaped out of the tree, transforming in mid-air, and hurtled over the wall, cursing himself for not shooting earlier. He landed hard and used the momentum to spring forward. Wolf-Gregor had Laura down, but Roy quickly closed the distance.

The instant Roy got within range, he pounced, jaws opening to rip out Gregor’s throat. But instead of flattening Gregor, Roy fell
through
him. He slammed into the ground, one paw twisting painfully beneath him and his jaws closing on nothing. Gregor had sunk into the earth like mist.

Laura was struggling to get up—at least she was still alive—but he couldn’t see if she was hurt. He could smell blood, but she’d been scratched up earlier and a fresh scrape was welling up on her arm. He didn’t see any more serious injuries.

Roy became a man so he could speak. “Did he bite you?”

“No, I—” Laura’s eyes widened. “Behind you!”

Roy leaped forward, then spun to see Gregor, now a man, rising up through the grass like something out of a horror movie.

“Roy, don’t let him touch you!” Laura called. “He’ll pull you into the ground and leave you there!”

It took a lot to scare Roy, but the thought of being entombed in solid earth made his stomach twist with horror. He hauled Laura to her feet, backing her away with him, the Raven held ready. She was barefoot; her shoes and pistol had gone flying when Gregor had jumped her.

“He’s only intangible while he’s holding his breath,” Laura added, glaring at Gregor. “Shoot him when he breathes in.”

Gregor promptly sank back down into the earth.

“Fuck!” Roy hurried away. His skin crawled as he imagined Gregor reaching up through the ground to grab his ankle. “How fast can he move underground?”

“No idea,” gasped Laura. “Let’s go!”

That was when Roy realized that in his haste to rescue Laura, he’d made no provision for getting back out of the compound. The walls were high and smooth, as was the automatic gate.

Laura pointed to the car that Gregor had jumped from, then pulled Roy down to whisper in his ear. “I’ve got the keys and it’s got a gate-opener. We’ll be in it for a minute, max.”

Roy looked around uneasily, but saw no sign of Gregor anywhere. For all he knew, Gregor was directly under his feet.

“Let’s go,” Roy said.

They bolted for the car, Laura clicking the doors unlocked as she ran. They let go of each other’s hands as they reached it, Roy diving into the passenger seat and slamming the door, Laura running to the driver’s side.

As she yanked open the door, a lean brown wolf leaped out from inside the next car over. Roy brought up his pistol, but he couldn’t get a clear shot; Laura was in the way.

The wolf’s jaws closed over her ankle.

I was too late,
Roy thought, stunned.
I didn’t save her.

He reached across Laura’s body with the pistol and fired at the wolf. Pain exploded through his head, blinding him, and he had no idea if he’d hit Gregor or not. Mostly by feel, he yanked Laura into the driver’s seat, made sure her feet were inside, and slammed the door.

“Drive!” Roy shouted.

The sickening disorientation and breathlessness came as a strange sort of relief; at least Laura had gotten the car moving. His heart was beating off-rhythm and far too fast. He needed to be there for Laura, like DJ had been there for him, but he couldn’t do anything. He couldn’t even breathe. His chest was being crushed, as if he
had
been pulled underground. He couldn’t help Laura. He hadn’t trusted his instincts. He’d come too late. He hadn’t guarded her when she went to the driver’s side. He’d never even told he loved her.

The world steadied around Roy, and cool air rushed into his lungs. His vision cleared. They were parked off-road in the woods. Laura was in the driver’s seat, anxiously leaning over him.

“Roy! Are you all right?” Laura asked.

“I’m fine,” he managed. “But he bit you.”

“I know.” She sounded calm, but her scent had no sugar at all. He could taste the sourness, stinging the back of his throat. “I don’t feel anything yet. It’s only been a couple minutes.”

Fifty-fifty chance.
DJ’s voice echoed in Roy’s mind, as familiar to Roy as his own.
What have you got to lose?

Everything,
Roy thought.

Emotions surged up in him like an incoming storm: terror and grief and guilt and rage and love and—

Not now.

If he let himself feel anything, he’d end up feeling everything, and then he’d lose it. He’d fall apart like he had when he’d heard DJ was missing. And then he’d be useless to her.