The heat that roiled low in my belly starburst and was everywhere now; the angel on my shoulder reminding me of my morals had been solidly sucker punched by a red-leather-wearing demon who told me to pounce when ready.
I stopped and stepped in front of Alex. “About last night.”
There was a sweet look of sympathy on Alex’s face that cut right through me. “It’s all right, Lawson. I know what that was all about.”
I took a step back. “You—you know what what was all about?”
“This.” Alex made circles with his arms. “All of this. The nerves. The awkwardness. It’s all right. You were drugged last night. You had no idea what you were saying. I know what you meant. You love me, we’re friends.”
“Oh,” I said, stunned, nervous heat shooting through me. “No, that’s not what I—that’s not what I meant.”
“You don’t have to explain it. I know about it. You and Will, I mean. I’m not exactly happy about it, but you know.” He shrugged and jammed his hands in his jeans pockets, starting to walk around me. “He can give you stuff that I can’t,” he said to the sidewalk. “He can give you a future.”
Alex wouldn’t look at me, but I saw his face tense up. He cleared his throat.
“Alex, Will and I . . .” I bit my bottom lip, started kneading my palm. “We—but we—and we’re not.”
Alex put a reassuring hand on my shoulder and gave me a practiced smile. “It’s okay. You don’t have to explain.”
“There’s nothing serious between Will and me, Alex.”
“Like I said, you don’t have to explain.” He turned and I grabbed his arm.
“I might not have to explain, but you do. What do you mean Will can give me something that you can’t? What can Will give me that you can’t?”
Alex studied me hard, his eyes going so dark they were almost chrome colored. I watched his Adam’s apple bob as he swallowed. “Will can give you a future, Lawson. That’s something I could never do.”
I felt like someone had punched me in the stomach. “What?”
Alex opened his mouth, looked like he was about to explain, when a howl sliced through the silent night. He straightened, his blue eyes going from sympathetic and human to seasoned-cop hard in less than a millisecond. “Did you hear that?”
“Unfortunately, yes.”
A string of howls answered back, but these were short and yippy, and ended with the guffaws of drunken zombies and North Beach partygoers.
“Stupid kids,” I muttered.
We stepped into the darkness, our moment gone, my gelato a syrupy, melted mess. I scanned for a garbage can to toss it, then stiffened.
Suddenly, there was a charge in the air. It was the same thing that made cats arch their backs and spine their tails; the same thing that put dogs on snarling alert. My hackles went up, adrenaline boiling my blood. I licked my lips, the saline taste of danger in my saliva.
I heard the growl, first.
It was a low, predatory rumble. Earthy and primitive, like nothing I’ve heard before.
Except I had heard it before. Once.
My feet were rooted to the ground, but I turned my head slowly. The rumble was low enough that I couldn’t hear which direction it came from. But it called to me, and I knew where it was.
“Lawson.” I heard Alex call behind me and I slowly held up a hand, silently willing him to understand, to stay put.
And when I turned again I saw it. A wolf, in the narrow, darkened corridor between two houses. I could make out nothing but his eyes and his teeth as the black rim of his lip curled up into a fearsome snarl.
The sclera glowed an eerie yellow-green, but it was the silky black of his pupils that drew me in. The edges were jagged and rimmed in a bloody red. Sampson once told me the black was the wolf eye; the red, where it tore through the man. I took a tentative step back and the wolf eye kept its focus on me. There was no flicker of recognition, no restraint in his eyes.
I wet my lips with my tongue. “Sampson?” I whispered.
A low growl. Not confirmation, not denial. Animalistic.
“Lawson!”
The wolf was over me before I knew it. I felt the slice of his claw over my shoulder, heard the thud of the powerful body hit the ground behind me, watched in horror as it crossed the street, scaled my car, and took off into the surrounding darkness.
Alex grabbed me before I fell.
“Lawson! Lawson!”
I blinked up at him, utterly dazed.
“What the hell? What the hell was that?”
“Werewolf,” I said, my voice low and hoarse, the word itself like a betrayal.
“Who was it?”
I felt myself start to shake. “I really don’t know.”
And it was the truth.
After an uncomfortably quiet ride home, we pulled into the police station parking lot.
“First the Shively case, now this,” Alex said.
I almost added the Sutro Point murders but thought better of it. “Yeah.”
“And you didn’t know anything about this.”
“ No.”