Tooth and Claw (The Harry Russo Diaries Book 2) (3 page)

“You’re crossing your eyes,” Gran’s voice broke my
concentration and the pencil dropped to the counter top.

“I was not.” I scowled at her and grabbed the pencil before
it could roll off the counter to the floor. “This is hard you know.” I was
practicing my telekinesis, another one of the little ‘gifts’ I suddenly had access
too. “At least you would
know
if you ever bothered to visit anymore.”

Gran was a ghost. She had passed away over seven years ago
and well, just never really left. Even after her death, she had continued to
be an important person in my life, but lately she had made herself scarce, ever
since Isaac had moved in.

This was the first time I had seen her in over a week. She
had made her opinion on having a vampire in the house loud and clear, at
least to me anyway, since I was the only one that could hear her. We ended up
having a bit of a dust up over the whole thing, that and the fact that I was
still in a bit of a snit that she withheld important information about my
heritage from me. For a while there, I thought that maybe Gran had left for
good. I don’t know where she goes when she’s not here, she’s never said and
I’ve never asked. I don’t think she even knows and if she did, I wasn’t sure
that was information I was prepared to process.

“Well try again then,” she said. “It’s not going to get any
easier if you don’t practice.”

I rolled my eyes at that bit of wisdom – thanks, Captain
Obvious - and set the pencil on the counter top. I took a cleansing breath and
focused on it, trying not to squint. “
Agitare
,” I whispered. The pencil
trembled then slowly started to float into the air.

“Move?” Gran’s tone was incredulous. “You told the pencil
to move?”

“What? It helps me focus.” The pencil dipped lower and
then straightened back up.

“It’s a crutch. You shouldn’t need to use a focus word.
You should be able to just look at an object and it will move the way you
want.”

Easier said than done. Tomas, a fellow dhamphir and overall
scary individual, could make an object move so fast from one place to another,
it was like it had disappeared and then reappeared in the blink of an eye. While
I was able to move and even cause objects to float, it took massive
concentration on my part just to make it look like a bad B-movie special
effect. You know, the kind where the little spaceship is flying, jerking up
and down on the screen, and you can just make out the wires holding it up. I
concentrated harder on the pencil, bringing it to a landing in the coffee mug I
had placed across the kitchen. There were several pens and pencils already
there, evidence of my earlier successes.

“Good job, Harry. Now bring it back,” Isaac said as he
walked around the corner and into the kitchen. With a little huff, Gran
disappeared.

I looked at Isaac critically. He was dressed in black jeans
and a charcoal, long-sleeved shirt. No suit, no tie. Not bad. Tess and I had
been working on him to try and take his usually formal dress code down a notch.
Last week he had even trimmed his shoulder-length hair, to a more modern men’s
style. It had amped up his sexy factor three-fold. “Looking pretty good there
Isaac,” I said.

Isaac’s hands flew up to the tie that wasn’t there at his
neck and I tried to hide my smile behind my hand. He shrugged, brushing
imaginary lint off his shirt instead. “I feel under-dressed.” He frowned.

“You look great. Trust me.” I turned my attention back to
the mug. The pencil in question rattled back and forth against the other pens
and pencils, but remained where it was. I huffed out an exasperated breath.
“Tomas made it look so easy.”

Isaac laughed. “Tomas has had over a century to practice.”

“A century! How old is he?” Tomas looked to be about twenty-five,
if that.

“Tomas has been with Salvador for over two-hundred years.
In fact, he was around your age now when first I met him.”

I sat there trying to process the information. “So I won’t
age anymore?” Was I going to be stuck at twenty-three forever?

“No, you will still age, but much more slowly, more in par
with how a werewolf ages in fact.” Cool, so Tess and I would age the same. I
could live with that. “You won’t stop aging, no matter how slowly, until your
first death,” Isaac continued. “Once you are a full vampire, you will no
longer age.”

I squirmed at the words ‘first death’. They ranked right up
there with ‘feeding’ in terms of words that made me uncomfortable. There were
some things about my true nature which I wished I could have remained
blissfully ignorant.

I turned back to try the pencil again, but the door opened
with a bang and Tess rushed in, all in a fluster. “Sorry, sorry. I’m late.”
She threw her bag down on the couch. “Matt was supposed to start at six and he
never showed up, so I had to take his beginner Tai Chi class.” She kicked off
her shoes and threw them under the bench by the door. “I just need to jump in
the shower and then I’ll be ready to go.” I had let her talk me into going
to the Lodge tonight, although I was having second thoughts. She stopped short
and looked at Isaac. “Isaac, looking good, looking good, my man.” She turned
to look at me. “Is
that
what you’re wearing?” She wrinkled up her
nose.

I looked down at my clothes. I was dressed in a pair of
faded jeans and a pink, baby-doll style t-shirt with cap sleeves. “What’s
wrong with what I have on? I told you I’m not going dancing.” What would be
the point? After the last time I was there, no male with an ounce of
self-preservation would come near me. It was all Nash’s fault. He had given
me a bowl of stew which in some sort of barbaric, male werewolf code meant I
was off limits to anyone with a Y chromosome.

“You look fine, just…” Tess trailed off with a shrug. “You
look fine.”

Hmmph. Fine. I rolled my eyes and followed her upstairs.
Okay, so maybe I could dress up a
little
.

***

Two hours later - we had been distracted by an episode of
Big
Bang Theory
- we were walking up to the Lodge. I was dressed in black
jeggings and knee high boots. On top I had my favourite copper-coloured cable
knit sweater. It had one of those deep cowl-necks that showed off a bit of
collar bone. Tess had taken a note from the casual page as well and was
dressed in black jeans and a tight little top that highlighted all her curves.

The Lodge hadn’t changed a bit since the last time I was
there. That is to say, it still looked like a total country dive bar. I knew
now that it was all a façade to keep the tourists away; the real party was in
the Ice House behind the pub where there were multiple bars, a dance floor and
even a pool hall set up. Isaac wasn’t in on the secret yet though, so I was
enjoying the look on his face as he tried to school his features. He was about
to become the first vampire to ever set foot in the werewolf community’s party
central. Hopefully we would all survive the occasion.

I needn’t have worried. True to her word, Christina paved
the way. The bar had gone completely silent when Isaac walked in and then a
number of men had stood, pushing back their chairs. There was a tense moment
before Christina bustled over from behind the bar.

“Isaac, so wonderful to finally meet you.” She grabbed him
by the arm and escorted him to the bar, chatting the whole way. After a few
minutes, even the most stubborn male had decided to sit back down. Crisis
averted.

For his part, Isaac looked a little dazed by the whole thing,
or at least by Christina’s attention. She spoke to him a mile-a-minute and if
I didn’t know better I’d say flirted with him too. I watched as she tried to coax
his macaroon recipe out of him, while plying him with a bowl of her famous
stew.

“Can you believe that?” Tess smiled and pointed to where
Isaac and Christina were huddled together discussing the benefits of unbleached
flour.

I just shook my head. They looked cute together. Who knew,
maybe they were the first inroads into better vampire-werewolf relations. We
were like UN ambassadors or something. I casually looked around the bar.

“He’s not here,” said Tess with a grin.

“Who says I’m looking for anyone?” I turned my back on the
room suddenly finding my empty stew bowl very interesting.

“Uh huh,” Tess rolled her eyes. “Sure you weren’t.”

“Oh, stick a sock in it. Do you want to go shoot some pool
or what?”

We left Isaac deep in conversation with Christina and headed
for the back room that led to the Ice House.

“Hey,” I said to the bouncer at the door, “where’s Tank?”
Tank was the bouncer the previous time I had been there. True to his name, he
was the biggest man I had ever seen. He wasn’t just tall, he was wide to go
with it.

“Don’t know. He never showed up for his shift,” the current
bouncer replied. He ushered us into the small store room that acted as the
entry to the Ice House beyond.

“That’s odd,” mused Tess.

“What?” I asked as we pushed our way to the bar through the
crowd standing near the dance floor. We ordered a couple of draft beers then
moved along towards some tables near the pool hall section of the venue.

“That’s the second time that someone hasn’t shown
up for work today. What is it with everyone ditching work?”

“Must just be a coincidence,” I replied, not thinking much
about it. “Look, there’s a pool table opening up over there.”

We shot a couple of games before Isaac finally joined us and
my game went downhill. Up until that point, I had been totally playing the
pool shark by using a little telekinetic nudge here and there to up my game.
Tess was oblivious, but Isaac had caught on pretty quickly

“No fair, Harry,” Tess complained.

“Hey, I was just finding a practical application for my new skill.
I wonder if I can do it with darts too?”

“Let’s find out.” Tess was always game for a new
challenge.

We moved over closer to the bar area to an empty table by
the dart board. It wasn’t in use so Tess grabbed some darts.

“Don’t look now Harry, but someone is watching you,” she
said looking over my shoulder towards the bar.

I rolled my eyes. “How am I not supposed to look now?” I
don’t understand why people say that. If they didn’t want you to look, they
should have just kept their mouth shut. I tried to look over my shoulder as
casually as possible. Nash was sitting at the bar nursing a beer. “What’s he
doing there?”

“He’s been here watching you for the last half hour,” Isaac
volunteered with a smirk.

“Just ignore him Harry.” Tess grabbed my arm, pulling me to
the dart board. She shoved a dart in my hand. “Here. I bet you can’t hit the
bullseye left handed.”

“With or without a little telekinetic finesse?” I asked,
happy for the distraction.

“Either,” she challenged back.

Turns out throwing darts with your non-dominant hand is a
challenge even with the use of telekinesis. Soon we were both giggling at our
crazy shots while Isaac sat back and shook his head.

Although I tried to ignore him, I found Nash completely
distracting. Or, I should say, I found all the women that kept throwing
themselves at him distracting. It was unbelievable. They were on him like
flies on…well, you know. Every few minutes, a new blonde or brunette or
red-head, all attired in clothes much too tight for them, would stop by to hang
on his arm or rub up against him. For the most part, Nash didn’t look overly
interested, but he was friendly enough, flirting right back with a few of them.
I don’t know what made my blood boil more, that Nash was flaunting all the
women that wanted him right in front of me, I mean in this whole big place he
had to sit right there where I could see him? Or, that I was letting it get to
me. Why did I care what Nash did?

Who was I kidding? Nash was like an itch I couldn’t
scratch. The more I told myself he was bad news and I shouldn’t be attracted
to him, the more attracted I was. I was like a kid who was told they couldn’t
have something. It just made me want it more.

“Harry, come on. Your turn.” Tess waved at me from the
dart board.

“I think I’ll sit this one out.” I turned and gave Isaac a
poke in the arm. “You go play with her.”

“Yeah, come on Isaac. Show me whatcha got,” Tess called to
him.

Isaac sighed but stood up, his lean frame towering over the
table. “Certainly, but none of this left-handed nonsense. Let’s put it to a
real test. Loser does the dishes for a week.”

“You’re on, Baker Boy,” Tess replied, her eyes gleaming at
the challenge.

I sat back in my seat and watched the game. I’d be lying if
I didn’t admit to also making sure my chair was angled just right, so I could
keep an eye on Nash. He was head to head with a pretty, little brunette. Her
hand was on his arm and she was talking animatedly at him. I grumbled and
looked at his plastic beer cup sitting near the edge of the table.