Wolf at the Door

chapter Thirty-seven



She wasn’t sure when or how, but Edward was sitting beside her, which was a sizeable improvement over standing apart from her and saying cold things and hating her, wanting to hurt her.

“Oh, Rache, please don’t . . . don’t . . . don’t,” he pleaded, giving her halfhearted pats on the shoulder. “You’re upset . . . okay. Your cover’s been blown, or whatever. But no harm done, okay? There’s still time to get out of town. Just don’t—don’t do that, okay? I really can’t stand it when you—oh, Rache. C’mere.”

Then . . . miracle! He was hugging her and patting her and whispering to her and her head was on his shoulder and he—concern concern concern lust anger concern concern

—wasn’t hating her anymore. He was being nice again. He was being wonderful again.

“Just . . . calm down. Let me see your hands, you almost broke the table, you probably have splinters down to the second knuckle . . . there! You’re okay. Huh. There’s not a mark on—right, we covered that. We know how you can do that. And it’s okay!” he added hastily, as if worried she’d burst into fresh sobs. “Well, it’s not okay, but you know what I mean. Look, let’s talk about—let’s—okay. Say I believe you. Tell me how it happened.”

“How what happened?” she sniffed, surreptitiously wiping her nose on his shoulder.

“Well, I did see you over there, in your—in her driveway. We both know you were there. Tell me about it.”

“About what? You said you saw me.”

“Sure. What were you doing? If you’re not the vampire queen, why were you there? How’d you even know to go there? Let’s say I’m buying this bullshit you’re tossing . . .”

She straightened up, freshly pissed. “Bullshit I’m toss—?”

He put his hands up like a man being arrested. He’d turned, they had both turned so they were straddling the picnic bench, their faces only a foot apart. “So you were . . . what? Sent on a noble and sacred mission to spy out the land?”

“No, apparently, you were. Which reminds me! I’ve got a few questions for you, pal.”

“Focus, Rache.”

“You focus.” She sulked on her part of the bench, but he was apparently done with the comforting. Now he was like a bloodhound on the scent.

“How did you creep into town all unnoticed by the vampire queen’s sinister minions? Assuming you’re not her?”

“I didn’t creep.”

“What are you, a lawyer or a slammin’ hot accountant?”

“Oh, I never could have handled law school,” she said, appalled. She shook her head. “Too many gray areas. Accounting, at least, is black and white. One of the few jobs that is, really. Nothing like social work, or medicine.”

Edward sighed and ripped his fingers through his hair so fast she was worried he might accidentally scalp himself. Or give himself a friction burn. He took a deep breath—

Forced calm. Anxiety. Irritation.

—and started again.

“Okay, Rachael. From the beginning. You skulked into town . . .”

“I drove my rental car to the chamber of commerce, where I met with a . . .” Pack member, she’d been about to say, but her secrets were her own to share. She had no business outing any other Pack members to Edward without their permission. “. . . a woman who had sort of prepared the way for me. She’d set up my living arrangements and was trying to get some clients for me. I didn’t know if I’d be here for a week or a year or a decade, so I needed to try to build a bigger client base.”

He nodded, reached up, and tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear. “Okay . . .”

She loved that he did that. She loved that he didn’t know he did that.

“And then, once I knew where I was going to be living, I got settled in—didn’t take long, I can tell you.” She sort of gestured to the basement. “You’ve seen it.”

“Yup. And . . . ?”

“And I made note of the address from the newsletter. I kept it.”

“Which you had because . . .”

“My cousin is our Pack leader. He’s the boss werewolf. He had one and he made me a copy.”

“Unreal,” Edward muttered, passing his hand over his eyes as if getting a headache. “Vampires are either fearless or stupid or maybe both.”

“I,” she retorted, “am not arguing. So I had the newsletter, I had her address. I MapQuested it, walked there since my apartment is only two blocks away from her mansion—far enough away so I’m not in their line of sight, but close enough so I can get there in a hurry if I have to. Or leave in a hurry if I have to. It’s a huge neighborhood. It’s not hard to lose someone if you have to.”

“Logical,” Edward said, nodding. Then he jabbed a finger in her direction. “But still sinister.”

Rachael sighed and peeked at the moon again. She didn’t have to, not really. She could have been in an underground bunker (which maybe the hobbit hole was, come to think of it) and would have known exactly what phase the moon was in at all times. Still, she had to look. The moon was her jailor and her lover.

“Then I rang the doorbell and was courteously let inside.”

“You didn’t call.”

“No.”

“They had no idea you were coming.”

“No.”

“Fearless or stupid.”

“Yes, or something beyond that, something we can’t understand. Perhaps it’s because they live so much longer than we do. Their slow—nonexistent, even?—metabolism spreads a different message. They have perspective we don’t have. Or can’t understand.”

“Yeah, maybe. That’s . . .” He trailed off, thought about it. “That’s interesting. Huh. So they let you in.”

“Yes. Because, see, I didn’t know it at the time, but they thought I was there to collect . . . This is going to sound complicated, but another Pack member used to live with them. They thought I’d come for her things. They weren’t surprised to see me. And they weren’t afraid, either. When I realized that, I decided to come back another time. I wanted to think about what I’d seen. I wanted to ponder what they’d done, and what they hadn’t done. So I left.”

“You saw the queen, though?”

“And her assistant, and a pregnant woman. And a . . .” She paused. Thought about it. Went ahead anyway. “I don’t expect you to believe me, because you haven’t believed anything I’ve said today, but I also saw a for-real zombie!”

“I know, right?” he cried, his hands on her shoulders, almost shaking her in his excitement. “Really good-looking guy, green eyes and scrubs? Right?”

“Amazing!”

“I knoooow!” He realized they were nose to nose and pulled back. “Okay. So we can agree that whole zombie thing was cool and weird.”

“Very cool,” she agreed. “And very weird. I didn’t even know there were zombies.”

“Jeez.” He was watching her in that strange way again, as though he couldn’t make up his mind if she was a freak or a find, or both. “If you’re lying, you’re the best I’ve ever seen.”

“I’m not lying.” She tossed her head. “But I am the best you’ve ever seen.”

He laughed, surprising them both. Then sobered almost at once. She was sorry. But at least he was—

concern concern puzzlement concern perplexity

—listening. At least he was trying to keep an open mind, even if he truly didn’t know what to think.

“You said your Pack leader, you said he sent you out here. To Minnesota. Why?”

“We’re cousins. He trusts me and he knew I’d do what he asked for love, not duty. He knew I wouldn’t want to go, but he also knew I wouldn’t let that get in the way of the work.”

“Yeah? So you guys are close?”

“Yes,” she said simply. There were too many things to explain in the course of one evening, especially that evening, and Pack dynamics were one of them.

“Are you gonna get in trouble for telling me all your secrets?”

“I’m not,” she replied, amused. “There isn’t time to tell you all my secrets. But if there was, the answer would be no. He loves me and he trusts my judgment.”

“I can see why he loves you.” Edward nodded. “Who wouldn’t?”

Oh, Edward. Do you even know what you just admitted to me? And the answer is, lots of people. Lots of people wouldn’t. Daresay couldn’t? But I love that you can’t understand that.

“But,” he continued, “why send anybody?”

“Because the last werewolf he sent to keep an eye on the vampire queen turned up dead in less than two years.

“What?”