“You sound suspicious.”
“Something doesn’t quite add up.”
“Did Doctor McPherson also tell you I had collected everything I could find on your work? That I was your ‘biggest fan’, so to speak?”
“He mentioned that you were very interested in it.”
“What would you say if I told you I took the position for the chance to be near you?”
“I would say that that’s creepy, almost stalker-ish. How do I know you weren’t trying to use me for my knowledge? Or my grandfather? Leo said you were a lab rat.”
Silence. I could tell that I’d really hurt him. Gads, I hated how those late-night conversations could strip away the facades we put up. But he had kept information from me, and right now I couldn’t trust anyone, not even Lonna, whom I heard moving around in the living room. At least I thought it was Lonna. Maybe it was Iain because whoever it was didn’t sound like they knew where everything was. I held my breath and listened hard.
“Doctor Fisher? Is everything okay?” My heart broke at the formality in his tone, the new wall between us.
“Someone’s in the apartment.”
“Just stay where you are. I’m calling the police.”
“No, don’t do that yet. I’ll keep you on the phone. Let me just peek my head out and see if it’s Lonna or Iain bumping around.”
“Is that wise?”
“I promise, you’ll hear everything I do.”
I opened the door just wide enough to squeeze through, and cell phone in hand, I crept down the hallway to the living room. The front door stood wide open, and something lay crumpled in a pile in front of it. I knelt down and saw Lonna’s crimson Razorback T-shirt and boxers—the ones she had gone to bed in.
“Gabriel, I’m not sure what to make of this,” I whispered into the phone.
“Of what?”
“Lonna seems to have left the apartment.”
“She lives there, doesn’t she?”
“Yes, but I think she left naked. Her clothes are by the door.”
Gabriel sighed. “I had a suspicion, but there was no way for me to know with certainty. I would have told you had I been sure.”
All the pieces to that puzzle fell into place. Lonna’s moodiness, her strange illness, and the way the male werewolves had reacted to her. “There’s something you haven’t been telling me, isn’t there? Something else.”
“I don’t think I need to tell you, do I?”
“No.” My best friend had become one of them. “I have to go.”
“Be careful. A new werewolf can be difficult to control.”
“I’ll wake Iain.”
A pause. “That’s probably a good idea. But good luck getting him to believe you. He never accepted CLS as more than a mental illness.”
“He’s going to have to. At least I’ve got compelling evidence.”
“You and I can have a long conversation when you get back. I promise to explain everything to your satisfaction.”
“I hope so. I think he’s coming with me.”
Another pause. “I’ll prepare a room.”
“Gabriel?”
“Yes?”
“Thanks. Whatever tonight and the next few days bring, I’m really glad you’ve got my back. Even if you’re a creepy stalker Scot.”
“You’re welcome, I think.”
Chapter Sixteen
The door creaked on its hinges as the wind picked up, and I moved to shut it. With the door closed, in the silence, I could almost believe I was in a waking dream—that it would be over when I went back to bed and shut my eyes. But then my feet found the discarded garments. What had Gabriel said? That a new werewolf was hard to control. It had never been possible to control Lonna. Just look at the mess she’d made with Peter Bowman. This wasn’t going to be easy. I closed my eyes and wished for Leo to return.
A footstep startled me, and I ducked the wine bottle that came swinging toward my head.
“What the hell—”
“Oh, it’s you, Joanna.” Iain flipped on the light, and the discarded pile of clothing came into lurid view as did the toppled end table and coffee table. The sofa and chairs, while still upright, sat at odd angles as though they’d been drinking with the lights off. “What’s going on? I heard someone moving around in here. I think they bumped into everything.”
“Lonna’s gone out for a run.”
He looked at the clothes by my feet and arched an eyebrow. “Naked?”
“If you weren’t gay, I’d swear that idea titillated you.”
“If I wasn’t gay, I’d allow it to distract me. There’s something you’re not telling me.”
I took a deep breath. “This is going to be a little hard to believe.”
“Someone tried to blow me up today for no logical reason. I’m up for believing anything.”
I gave him the quick-and-dirty explanation of CLS as we grabbed our jackets and put shoes on. He listened, but I could tell he didn’t really buy it.
“So you’re saying that we’re dealing with true werewolves, not just delusions?”
“I know it sounds crazy, Iain, but it’s true. I’ve seen them. I saw Gabriel transform, and it wasn’t a trick of the light. I’ve dealt with them post-metamorphosis and after a long night of hunting. I’ve heard them argue over who got to kill a deer with human voices in canine mouths.”
“How is that physically possible?”
“I suspect it was telepathic—I can understand them when others can’t—but still, you’ve got to believe me.”
“Whether Lonna has what I know of as CLS or what you’re telling me doesn’t matter. How did she develop it?”
I released the breath I’d been holding.
“And just what, exactly, are we looking for? Is she still part human?”
“I don’t know.” I handed him a flashlight, and we walked out the door. I locked it behind me and put the key in my pocket, then hesitated. What if she came back and ended up being locked out, naked on her front step?
“Hang on.”
I dashed inside and hung the boxers and T-shirt on the outside doorknob. “Just in case.”
Iain gestured for me to precede him down the stairwell. The lights illuminated a ten-foot radius, but beyond that, inky blackness.
“Um, why don’t you go ahead?”
“Afraid of the dark and things that go bump in the night?”
Before I could answer, a howl split the air, reached a crescendo of triumph, and then tapered, the quiet of the night such that the vacuum of sound left by the howl momentarily sucked all noises into it.
“What was that?” Iain searched the darkness with wide eyes as we walked down the stairs side by side.
“I hope it was Lonna.”
“Who else might it be?”
“I don’t know.” I didn’t really feel like going into the whole black-wolf mystery right then. He’d really think I
