"Let's take this one day at a time," Nic said.
A good idea. Lord knew what tomorrow might bring.
Nevertheless, I was disappointed. Where once sex with no strings hadn't sounded bad, now it no longer sounded good.
Nic lifted my tangled hair from my neck and pressed his lips to the sensitive skin at the curve.
Or maybe it did.
"For years I thought you were dead. Now I'm so scared you might end up that way, I can't sleep at night."
Not exactly a declaration of everlasting love, but it was something.
"I don't kill easily," I murmured.
"Maybe I should sleep in here from now on."
His mouth drifted lower, hovering just above mine.
"Maybe you should." I lifted onto my toes and kissed him.
He tasted both familiar and new, the past and the present in just one man. Everything I knew of sex and love, I'd learned from him.
I wanted him now as I'd wanted him then, loved him the same, if not more. Could I hope again for a future only to have it snatched away? Was it better to dream the impossible than never to dream at all?
Regardless of what tomorrow brought, we had tonight. I planned to make the most of every opportunity.
Hooking my ankle around his, I tumbled us onto the bed. We fell in a heap of limbs and new clothes with me on top. Nic laughed, and I stared down into his face.
"What?" His laughter faded, leaving a puzzled smile in its wake.
"I haven't heard you laugh like that since - " I broke off.
"Stanford?"
I shrugged.
"I don't laugh much anymore. Life without you hasn't been very funny."
With me wasn't going to be too ha-ha, either.
He touched my cheek. "Stop."
"What?"
"Thinking so much." He slipped his hand around the back of my neck and tugged. "Come here."
I went gladly, touching my lips to his. But when I tried to deepen the kiss, he wouldn't let me, instead making the embrace more tranquil than arousing, more gentle than passionate. That single kiss, which went on and on, moved me more than the sex ever had.
"Elise!"
Edward slammed the door, and I scrambled off Nic as if I were fifteen years old instead of twenty-nine.
He appeared in the doorway, lifting his brows at the sight of my tangled hair and twisted sweater. I smelled smoke - he had taken care of the body in the woods - then his gaze went past me to Nic, and he grimaced before turning away.
"Kitchen," Edward snapped.
I turned to see what had annoyed him this time and had to hide a smirk. Nic might have been kissing me gently, but he still had a hard-on that was clearly visible beneath his jeans.
"If he thinks he's going to force me out of town again," Nic said, "I'm going to kick his bony ass, then shoot him. With silver, just to be sure."
I started to laugh, then I choked as a thought hit me, sending a nasty chill from head to toe.
"Stay here," I said, and followed Edward into the kitchen.
He'd set a package on the table - my research, thank goodness. One less thing to worry about. On to the next.
I crossed the room, hesitating as I neared him. Could I shoot Edward? He could certainly shoot me.
I touched his arm. He jerked back, nearly knocking over a chair in his haste to get away. But it was enough. I glanced at Nic, who had followed despite my orders.
When our eyes met, I shook my head and he lowered his hand from his weapon. I took comfort from the knowledge that he would have shot Edward if I couldn't.
"You thought I was bitten?" Edward asked.
I shrugged. "Better safe than sorry. You have been acting odd lately."
"How can you tell?" Nic muttered, earning a glare from Edward.
"I would shoot myself if I was infected."
"You know damn well if you were bitten you wouldn't be you anymore," I said, "you'd be them. Or us.
Whatever."
"Don't you have an antidote?" Nic asked.
"Only if the victim is injected before the first change."
"A concoction that would be more useful," Edward pointed out, "if it did not spoil within twenty-four hours of mixing it."
In that moment I understood that nothing I ever did would be enough for him. And suddenly, I didn't really care.
"Getting back to our present troubles," Edward continued briskly. "I did not know this Basil Moore."
"Why would you know him?" Nic asked.
"To be a traitor, to know some of the things our enemies now do, the culprit would have had to be one of us once."
"Rogue agent," I supplied. "Once J��ger-Suchers, until fired by Edward for inappropriate behavior."
"What kind of nutcase do you have to be to get ousted from a monster-hunting society?"
"I have rules." Edward sniffed. "If they are not followed, out you go. If you are lucky."
Unlucky people disappeared.
Many former J-S agents were adrenaline junkies. They couldn't give up the danger, or hold down a regular job, so they went hunting on their own. After searching out and destroying monsters most of mankind didn't even know about, it was kind of hard to adjust to life as a librarian.
"But since Basil was not one of us," Edward reiterated, "he could not be a traitor, though he may have bought information from one who is."
"And now we'll never know, because someone killed him," I said.
"A werewolf, not a someone," Edward pointed out. "Now tell me what you have learned about witchie wolves."
Lydia's book lay on the table. Nic picked it up and started paging through as I filled Edward in.
"Have you spoken with Jessie's lover?" Edward asked.
"Why do you call him that? He has a name."
"What is it again?"
I rolled my eyes. He knew damned well what Will's name was.
" 'Witchie wolves sleep in the sun until ,' " Nic read.
Edward and I glanced at each other, then at Nic.
"And what do they plan to do under the ?" I frowned. "What's a ?"
"I have never heard that term before," Edward said.
"We should really call Will."
"Wait." Edward went into the hallway and came back with his briefcase. He pulled out an electronic device I'd never seen before.
"Speaker phone?" Nic asked.
"Of a kind. This is a prototype. Not only can those we call hear all of us, but it magnifies the other line so we can hear them."
Edward was provided with the latest technology from the U.S. government - usually double-nought spy stuff like this.
"It will be easier to discuss the case, ja?"
" Ja," I said. "I mean yes."
Edward hooked the contraption to the phone line, then dialed Jessie's number.
"This had better be good," she answered, the slur in her voice making me glance at my watch.
midnight. Why was she asleep?
"We need to have a conference," Edward said. "Set the phone on a flat surface so we might hear both you and your - "
He broke off, glanced at me, scowled and muttered, "Cadotte."
"My Cadotte? Well, he is kind of mine." The phone clunked once. 'Okay. Go ahead."
"How up-to-date are they?" Edward asked.
"Werewolf in human form biting the dead, disappearing bodies, invisible ghost wolves - "
"Whoa!" Jessie interrupted. "I never heard anything about ghost wolves."
The rustle of sheets preceded Will's voice. "Are you talking about witchie wolves?"
"We think so."
"They're supposed to live - well, not live exactly, exist, I guess - on the shores of Lake Huron."
"Apparently they don't know that, because they're here."
"Fascinating," he murmured.
"Off he goes," Jessie said. "Computer Boy to the rescue."