I said something deliberately unintelligible and turned my back. I slipped into my shorts and jeans before turning back around. Gail met my gaze with a wistful smile. “Still nice, I see.”
“You could have seen even better in the shower.”
She laughed. “I’ll give you an A for persistence.”
Her smile turned into a frown. She held up her Colt’s slide. “Since when do you leave my gun on the floor?”
I felt sheepish about it. “Oh, well, you see, I was a little tired after everything. I just didn’t have the energy to get it.”
“Why don’t you fill me in on,” Gail waved a hand around the room, “all this.”
I nodded and turned another chair upright to join her at the table. There were two mugs near her and I eased one toward me. Gail watched as though trying to decide if she wanted me to have it or not, but in the end, she let me keep it.
For the next fifteen minutes, I outlined the events of the night, stopping only to backfill or elucidate when Gail interrupted with a question.
When I’d reached the point of her waking up, Gail started reassembling the Colt she’d ignored during my story and shook her head. “I don’t get it.”
“I don’t either, but what don’t you get?”
“Any of this, werewolves aren’t pack animals. It happens, rarely, and the concerted effort it took to break into here, particularly with a simultaneous assault, would require a level of communication I’ve never heard of. Moreover, if there were more than three, why didn’t the rest finish you while you were killing these? The way you described it, I don’t think it would have taken more than one or at most two more to take you down.”
“Are you criticizing my fighting skills?” I asked.
Gail leaned toward me and placed a hand on my thigh. She gave me a squeeze and I felt myself thickening. I couldn’t believe how much I had missed her touch, her breath mingling with mine, our heartbeats pounding as one. Damn, get a grip, Jesse!
Gail didn’t appear to notice the reaction I was having to her small act, without removing her hand from my leg she smiled. “Not at all, Hoss, I’m just saying. As for your fighting prowess, I doubt if many hunters could have taken on three wolves at the same time. You did good, Jesse.”
Surprised at the serious tone in her compliment, I became embarrassed at my physical reaction to her touch. “Well, ah, thanks.”
Gail chuckled and turned back to finish with her Colt by loading a magazine and chambering a round. “Don’t go pulling any false modesty on me. Thirty hours ago, you didn’t know werewolves existed. Now you’ve killed three single handed and helped kill another, not to mention the ghouls.”
I made a face. “Yeah, I’d just as well not mention the ghouls.”
“Don’t be squeamish. They’re monsters, maybe a little more disgusting than some, but they’re not the worst thing you’ll encounter.” She ejected the magazine and added another round to fill it.
“I’d rather not hear about anything else just now.” I drank the coffee, set the cup down, and yawned.
“Did you get any sleep at all?” Gail asked.
“Nope, or at least I don’t think so. I was pretty loopy toward morning, but after the attack there was no way I was sleeping with the skylights open.” Then I thought about it. I could hardly remember anything from sometime around one until Gail spoke to me. Had I fallen asleep? Hell, could I have been so weak?
“Then you’d better get some today.” She smiled devilishly. “Want me to tie you to the bed?”
“I don’t think you’d need to if you wanted to have your way with me. I wouldn’t be able to resist.”
“Coffee not kicking in?” Gail asked.
“Nope, I think it’s partially blood loss. Let me lie down for a few hours and then we’ll see about disposing of our guests.”
“Sure, Jesse, you rest. I’ll clean up some and figure out what our next step is.”
I glanced toward the front door. “You think he’s still out there?”
Gail followed my gaze. “The one that bit me? Yeah, I’m pretty sure he isn’t one of these. These people are all about our age. The wolf that bit me had age behind him; bastard snuck up on me and knocked my gun from my hand before going for my throat. But then, once he’d bitten the arm I threw up to cover my throat, he trotted off as if he was no longer concerned about me.”
“We’ll find him, Gail. I promise.”
She gave me a tilted head stare. “Jesse, you’ve got to stop making promises like that. You don’t know that we’ll even identify him, much less hunt him down.”
“But that’s what you do.”
Gail shook her head. “I don’t get everything I hunt. Sometimes they get away and sooner or later you end up like Dad did.”
I pursed my lips and nodded. “Just give me a couple of hours.”
I moved to the bed and lay down. I pulled the pillows up against my head. Over the ubiquitous odor of spilled blood, both pillows bore Gail’s scent.
I pulled the pillows tighter against my face, inhaled deeply, and slept.
A hand was shaking my shoulder.
I sat upright and grasped Gail’s wrist. “Easy there, Hoss, it’s just me, time to get up.”
I blinked, twice, and let go. “Oh, okay. Thanks, what time is it?”
“It’s three o’clock,” Gail said.
“Three? Damn, why’d you let me sleep so long? I thought you’d wake me by noon at the latest.”
“You needed rest. I didn’t. Sure, I felt tired this morning, but not that tired. The coffee woke me right up.”
I slid my feet onto the floor and looked for my boots. Then I saw that Gail had cleaned up the interior of the cabin. Sure, there were still three open skylights in the roof, but the debris had been removed, broken lamps and dishes no longer littered the floor and the three bodies weren’t in sight.
