[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
was unlikely to be interested in platitudes.
How much better than them are you? Mason said. You think you know so much.
But those friendlies of yours have taken two more girls. Did you not know that, or did you
just not care?
Part of his rash retort came from his disquiet. The council was trying to draw together
the peaceful weres, but they were proving to be fewer than anyone had expected. Yet there
Eclipse of the Heart: Here Comes the Sun 51
were packs of werewolves all through the country, and every one of them was involved in
crime and killing. When it came to wolves, only a few rogues were peaceful types. Who was
doing anything about the rest of them?
Samson leaned forward, his brows drawn down in a deep frown, his expression frozen.
Had he truly not known? Finally he leaned back again without a word. The driver opened
the door and stood by it with a small sidearm held loosely by his side. Mason took that to be
an invitation to leave. He got out of the limo and watched as the driver went back to the
front of the vehicle with precise, orderly steps. He was a tall, thin man who never once
looked in Mason s direction. The two of them were well up there on the freaky scale. It was a
little hard to know if Samson could possibly have the ability to follow through on his
grandiose threats.
The limo pulled away, its engine hardly making a sound. Mason stood a long time on
the pavement, watching the empty street.
He really, really wanted a cigarette.
52 Emily Veinglory
Chapter Eleven
So there he was, walking up to the front door of the cottage again. The small front lawn
needed mowing, he noted distantly. He kept a new manual rotary mower for the purpose. It
was good exercise, and it reminded him of his father, who used to get out a manual mower
every weekend and clatter up and down across the grass. Lan had approved, too -- better for
the environment, he said.
It was easier to think about that than some madman s plans to wipe out the
werewolves. Even worse was the fact that Mason wasn t entirely sure that would be the
wrong thing to do. But it sounded like what Samson had in mind was something fairly
indiscriminant and likely to take out most of the other were. And, hell, Lan said there were
some full-blooded wolves that were okay too. Some yuppie wolves he d met up in Orclundt.
Mason opened the door, not trying to be quiet. He had half expected that Lan would
have turned up at the bar sometime during the night, but had been happier that he didn t.
Lan shouldn t feel the need to go running after him every time he stormed off in a huff.
Better that Mason had to come back on his own to apologize and explain. Then he wondered
if Lan had just gone to sleep and not cared about his reaction.
Eclipse of the Heart: Here Comes the Sun 53
As he came inside, the house was dark. Mason kicked off his boots in the hallway, but
left his jacket on. It was surprisingly cold inside, and the nightlight wasn t plugged in. Mason
tensed up the moment he saw evidence of a break in their normal routine. The wolves
wouldn t bother Lan, surely? Lan wouldn t have left the house. Where would he go? There
was no light in the house but some vague reflected starlight and streetlamp light coming in
through the windows. The curtains weren t drawn, and the air was cold and fresh.
Proceeding down the small hallway, he looked first into the living room -- empty.
Then to the nexus of the bedroom and bathroom -- also empty, as far as he could see. Then
on into the kitchen. The back door was open to the dark, empty yard and a blank expanse of
the back fence. In the middle of the kitchen table was a square of toilet paper, its crumpled,
soiled shape smoothed down flat. Mason stared at it, bemused.
He looked up to the dark void of the open door, then back to the table. Belatedly, he
realized this must be the toilet paper he d discarded from the car early that morning. The
most logical way for it to have got there was courtesy of friendly neighborhood policeman
Ross Bailey, the man who thought all shifters were dangerous people. Fuck. This was all
getting too damned complicated.
A few more cautious steps took him to the back door. Just outside was a very small
concrete porch, three feet off the ground and no bigger than the seating area of the two-
person sofa. Lan liked to called it their white-trash loveseat. Looking to the side, Mason saw
the lean shape of Lan s animal form lying with his forepaws dangling off the front of the
stoop. The wash of relief was so strong that he physically sagged, leaning against the
doorjamb. Lan looked up, the faint light glinting off his eyes.
Damn, Lan, you had me worried. Things are getting pretty fucked up in this town, so I
would appreciate it if you barked or something when I came in so I know you re all right.
He sat down next to Lan, with his back against the outside wall of the house. They had
a lot of catching up to do, and it really would be better if Lan was in human form, but in a
way this was easier. Mason put his arm over Lan, feeling the sleek but coarse fur over his
54 Emily Veinglory
shoulder. He resisted the urge to pat Lan like some domesticated dog, but his fingers seemed
to move slightly of their own accord, just tracing the grain of the hair down Lan s shoulder.
After a moment, Lan sighed and leaned into him, his heavy canine head lying across
Mason s knees. They sat together for a while, looking out at the dark, lumpy contours of the
backyard, listening to the distant hiss of the downtown traffic and the occasional vehicle
navigating the nearer suburban streets. Mason s mind wandered over the time they had spent
together, the bond that he could almost feel between them right now in the silence. Lan was
the only person he felt he could be with and be only and entirely himself. That hadn t
changed. That had never changed. It was just that his sense of who he actually was had
started to slip away.
Finally Lan got to his feet, stepped carefully over Mason s legs, and went inside. Mason
followed him. He went into the bedroom and got Lan s old, frayed terrycloth robe, and by
the time he came back, Lan was in human form. He slipped the old robe onto Lan and shut
the back door. Then he set up the old coffee perk, putting in the paper and coffee -- decaf
again, neither of them could afford to lose any more sleep. That damned piece of stained
tissue was still in the middle of the table. Mason grabbed it and tossed it into the bin. He
noticed, with a glance, that although the kitchen scraps were in there, Ross s business card
was not.
Lan sat at the kitchen table, loosely tied robe gaping to show the pale slope of his
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]