The Night Beat, From the Necropolis Enforcement Files (44 page)

“Ralph’s going to be okay, right?”

She gave me a small smile. “I’m sure.”

“Will someone come and tell me when it’s okay for me to go back and stay with Ralph?”

“Yes, dear, I’ll make a note on his chart.” She patted my arm then bustled off and I was alone.

I had no idea what time it was, but I could say for sure that my pseudo-nap hadn’t done me too many favors. I figured I could pace and worry or sleep. I grabbed a pillow and a couple of blankets, made a nest on one of the couches, contemplated what would be the most comfortable in this situation and switched to wolf form, curled up, and went to sleep.

Well, I tried. Intermittent sleep is better than nothing, and that’s what I was getting. I was alone in the waiting room, but I could hear medical personnel running here and there, doing their jobs. Sadly, Ralph wasn’t the only one in this wing and there was a lot of ruckus for a variety of beings.

There was another little undeads tour group who came by and though they tried to be quiet, twenty youngsters “whispering” was enough to rouse someone deaf, let alone someone with my hearing. I played dead dog, but it still required waking up and going back to sleep.

And so it went. If I fell asleep and no one in the hospital managed to wake me, then my wrist-com was going off with updates. Updates I was too fuzzy to do anything with. The exhaustion and heartache had caught fully up to me and I was a basket case. The best I got was that Ken was in charge but wanted me back on the case, however the Count wanted me recuperated, and nothing was happening, but Monty felt it was the calm before the next storm.

I listened to these updates, grunted or growled, depending, and then flopped back down to sleep.

Somewhere around dawn Nurse Nancy brought me some food, shared she was going off duty, and reassured me that Ralph was still alive. I was still relegated to the waiting room, however. I scarfed the food and did the flop back onto the paws thing.

I was on my back, in the first deep sleep I’d managed, paws in the air, when I felt someone watching me. I was pretty sure I’d been snoring -- per Jude and Ken both, I snored up a storm in what everyone who wasn’t canine called the “dead cockroach” sleeping position.

Police training combined with werewolf senses meant I evaluated the situation in the room quickly, eyes still closed. There was definitely no feeling of danger, but I was also not alone. I cracked an eyelid.

Upside down, the man standing there looked okay. Tall, long dirty-blond hair, medical scrubs. Wasn’t a doctor I knew, but then again, I did my best not to be here much.

It was clear he knew I was awake, because he looked amused. I did the flip and roll thing, which flipped me onto the floor. He helped me up and I figured it was time to go to human form, since I’d embarrassed myself enough in wolf form.

“You okay?” He sounded concerned but still amused.

“I think so. Are you one of Ralph’s doctors?” Right-side up, he was pretty cute. Not too bulky but extremely sinewy, big brown eyes, nice smile. He wasn’t Jack, but then again, hopefully that meant he wasn’t also carrying around evil incarnate in his soul. I considered that maybe I should spend more time cruising the medical personnel, then reminded myself that I was here for Ralph, not to pick up one of the people trying to save his unlife.

His eyes widened and he shook his head. “I’m a patient. Just wanted to get out of the room for a minute.” He let go of me and sat on one of the couches. “Sorry, I’m not supposed to be standing for too long right now.”

I considered sitting next to him -- he was in the middle of his couch, arms stretched out on the back of it, one leg crossed over the other. He looked good in this position, but picking up on one of Ralph’s fellow patients didn’t say “I care about you and I’m sorry” any more than making goo-goo eyes at the medical staff did. I checked the clock. It shared that it was six o’clock, but since it was an old-fashioned dial clock, there was no a.m. or p.m. and I was far too out of it still to be able to offer a good guess. “Is it day or night?”

“Night, I think.” He had a nice voice, deeper than you’d expect from just looking at him. I reminded myself that I was not looking. Sort of.

“Good, then I didn’t sleep for twenty-four hours straight.” Not that I couldn’t have used it. I sat back down on my nest and tried not to notice the drool marks on the pillow. I had to figure I’d been quite the sight, particularly if you were looking for a good laugh. “So, what’re you in for?”

“Bad…accident.” He cocked his head at me. “Why are you here?”

My throat felt tight. “A…friend of mine got hurt and I just…I wanted to make sure he was going to be okay.”

“Ah. That’s nice of you.” He sounded a little disappointed.

“I guess.”

His eyebrow raised. “You guess?”

“It’s my fault he’s in here.” I heaved a big sigh, which I hoped meant I wasn’t going to start crying again. “I screwed up, big time, and he paid the price for it.”

“You’re Enforcement,” he said with a shrug. “It happens.”

I didn’t ask how he knew. It wasn’t the first time someone had recognized me even though I didn’t know them well or at all. Besides, I’d been out, so for all I knew he’d just asked someone who the weirdo was sleeping in the waiting room like it was a kennel.

“It shouldn’t have happened. If I’d been paying attention, really paying attention, it wouldn’t have happened.”

“How is that?” He didn’t sound accusatory or even salaciously interested. He sounded genuine.

Put it down to hunger, exhaustion, heartache, or guilt, but I opened my mouth and the whole story poured out. He nodded, asked the right questions at the right time, and pretty soon he had the whole thing. “So, now Ralph’s at death’s door and I’ve given the Adversary all he needs to destroy us.”

“You couldn’t have known,” he said gently. “Besides, you were being set up by the best.”

“That helps Ralph exactly how?”

He gave me a long look. “You know, he’s Enforcement, too. He knew the risks. And it sounds like you think he’s in love with you. Any male who isn’t willing to die to protect his female really isn’t worth keeping around.”

I couldn’t hold his gaze. Rehashing it all hadn’t made me feel better -- it had confirmed that I’d been blithely clueless. “I fell for it, by falling for Jack. So I’ve been stupid for at least a year, and the Gods and Monsters know what he managed to do while I was mooning over him.”

He chuckled. “From what it sounds like, Jack was a sleeper.”

I looked up. “A sleeper?”

“Sure. An agent programmed and put into place. He doesn’t know he’s an agent until he’s triggered. Then, once he is, he reverts to the programming. In some cases, sleepers can have moments when the programming takes over and their conscious mind doesn’t know it. I could go on, but there’ve been a lot of movies about things like this.”

“But there’s no way to know.”

“Sure there is. The angels didn’t know what was wrong with him, just that something was. That says sleeper to me. He bothered Ken and plenty of others, heck, he even bothered Sexy Cindy, as you call her.” He grinned. “Not the most subtle of street names. But no one could put their paw onto what was wrong with him. Again, that says sleeper to me. If Martin and Black Angels One and Two couldn’t spot what was wrong with Jack, you certainly couldn’t have known, you don’t have the psychic skills.”

There was something wrong with what he’d said, but I couldn’t put my paw on it. “I suppose. But that doesn’t help Ralph.”

“You in love with him?”

It was so straightforward I was almost taken aback. “I don’t know.”

“But you think you should be, because he’s in love with you?” He seemed intent with this question. I wasn’t sure if it indicated general or specific interest and figured all the recent emotional trauma with Jack and confusion about Ralph had me so turned around that I probably wouldn’t be able to tell, anyway.

“Sort of. But that’s not really it. I feel like I’ve never given him a chance and maybe that was part of the overall plan, too, you know? Maybe if we hadn’t stopped running in packs, things would be different between me and Ralph.”

“Maybe, maybe not. Maybe you were supposed to come around to it this way.”

“Maybe Ralph won’t want to speak to me ever again and this entire conversation will be moot.” I didn’t add that maybe Ralph was going to die, which would make the conversation even more pointless and a lot more painful.

“So you think he’s going to decide that you’re not worth it, just because he got hurt?” He sounded annoyed. Great.

“I don’t know. I mean, I’d understand if he did. Wouldn’t you?”

“No. Wolves are monogamous. That includes when they make mistakes.” He stood up. “I think you should stop worrying and just relax.”

I rolled my eyes as I stood up, too. “Thanks for the advice.” I was about to add something sarcastic when a nurse raced in. Like Nurse Nancy, I’d seen her around but didn’t really know her.

She gasped in what sure sounded like relief. “
There
you are!” She grabbed my waiting room buddy’s arm. “You need to get back into bed, excellent recovery or not.”

He pulled gently out of her grasp. “I’ll get back there myself, I promise.”

She gave an exasperated grunt. “Your kind drive me crazy,” she muttered. “Fine. I’ll tell the doctors and your superior officers.” Interesting. I didn’t know him, so he couldn’t be Enforcement. I tried to think if we had Special Ops in the vicinity and couldn’t come up with any activity I knew about.

“Is Ralph going to be okay?” I asked before she could leave the room. “Ralph Rogers?”

The nurse gave me a look that said I was really weird. “Yes. Obviously. Though he needs to rest.”

“Excuse me? What do you mean ‘obviously’?”

She shook her head. “Special Agent Rogers, the doctors want you back in bed, pronto.” With that she stomped out.

And I stared, with my mouth open.

He grinned. “Surprise.”

Chapter 62

I stood there, still staring, as shock ran through my entire body. “Who are you?” I knew, but some things you wanted to hear live and confirmed.

He laughed. “You heard her. Vic, relax. It’s okay.”

“You…you….” I got a hold of myself. “You
jerk
!” He looked taken aback. I stepped closer and poked my finger into his chest for emphasis. “You sat there, listening to me tell the story that you already knew about, listening to me wax rhapsodic about you, and you never said a thing.” I was growling. “I ought to put you right back into that hospital bed.”

“The doctors would be happy if you did,” he said easily. “I thought you’d recognize my voice.”

“You don’t sound like you do in wolf or werewolf form, you unutterable jackass! None of us do! And I’ve never seen you in human form, ever. Name someone in all of Necropolis Enforcement who
has
.”

Ralph shrugged. “The Count. And, before he died, Black Wolf.”

My jaw was back to hanging open. It didn’t help that I also had tears in my eyes.

Ralph closed my mouth gently. “I’m Special Ops, Vic. I have been for almost double the time you’ve been undead. But for the last two hundred and some years, I’ve had one assignment and one assignment only.”

“What was that?” My voice was a whisper. Did I know anything about anyone?

“Protecting the one being likely to be able to stop this time’s Adversary. Protecting you.” He shook his head. “I had the freedom to do that job in any way I saw fit. And I saw fit to do it like Black Wolf told me to -- as a wolf, not a human.”

I felt my bottom lip start to tremble. “Why all the werewolf rights stuff, then?”

He smiled. “You’re right. I’m a werewolf fanatic, Ralph Rogers, werewolf with a cause. I want our kind allowed to do what we do best. I want us no longer afraid to be seen as werewolves.” He sighed. “Unfortunately, I’m still me. As you accurately described me, kind of a dork.”

“Kind of a dork who just managed not to tell me who I was pouring my heart out to for like an hour?” I was working hard to hold onto the anger. It seemed so much better than letting the tears out. Memory waved and reminded me of the last part of our conversation. “And you had the
nerve
to ask me if I was in love with you, and you aren’t clear why I’m upset?”