Bargains and Betrayals (27 page)

He stalked to the stairs and looked up at me.

“You’re needed inside. Now. My dad should be pulling up with Annabelle Lee any minute.”

His head tilted, gaze questioning.

I put my hands on my hips. “You’re gonna have to show her”—I glanced around the yard; how likely was it a neighbor might overhear and if they did, was anything really still
weird
in Junction?—“your
stuff
.”

He snorted.

I sucked my teeth in exasperation. “Not
that
stuff. Who am I talking to? Pietr or Max?”

He climbed the stairs to stand beside me. I pulled in a quick whiff of Pietr—slightly damp from working out—and was suddenly not thinking clearly.

“Do you want me to—” Pietr moved his hands in a quick flourish, miming taking off his clothes.

I started to nod before I remembered what I was agreeing to. “Uhm. No.” I shook my head firmly, trying to toss the image of Pietr—naked—from my head. “Annabelle Lee,” I recalled.
Focus, Jess
. “She’s twelve. No need to see all that. If you want to show her in a less naked way, that’s fine.”

He peered at me.

“Like, do the wolf-head thing, or make hands into paws. But nothing that requires stripping south of the equator.”

Inside, Alexi laughed all the way out the door and onto the porch.

Pietr and I blushed in matching tones and headed inside to tell my little sister that the boy I was dating—the boy who had helped us find her when we got briefly separated at the fair months ago—was a werewolf.

My normal
.

Jessie

“Okay,” Annabelle Lee pouted. “I don’t get this. Why can’t I stay at home tonight? With Dad and my books?”

“Well, there’s a lot of crazy stuff going on,” I started to explain.

“Dad already said that. Cut to the chase. He said you had something I need to see to believe.”

I nodded. “What else did Dad say?”

“That even seeing isn’t always believing. And that everything’s been turned upside down because of your connection to the Rusakovas.”

Pietr blanched.

I squeezed his hand. “You’re on.”

“It
is
because of us,” he agreed sadly. “We have a strange history—”

“Oh, holy crap.” I pushed Pietr aside and looked at my little sister. “You wanna cut to the chase?”

She nodded.

“Great. Pietr and Max are genetically engineered werewolves, the result of Cold War experimentation. Cat was one, too, but my blood—like your blood, probably—is a key component in the cure. Alexi’s adopted.” I waved a hand in the air. “Okay so far?”

Annabelle Lee nodded her head and then changed direction with it:
No
.

“Hang in there another minute,” I said. “Some company that may or may not be potentially affiliated with the CIA wants the werewolves to be their dog soldiers. The Russian Mafia wants them, too, for some scheme to eventually overthrow the government of Russia. I know, I know. It sounds like some crazy plot cooked up by a housewife-turned-author. But that saying
Truth is stranger than fiction
? Dead-on. And, because we can stop the werewolves from being werewolves, both groups would like us dead.”

Annabelle Lee blinked at me. “This is unbelievable.” She looked at her backpack, pillow, and stuffed rabbit on the floor nearby. “I’m not an idiot. I know what’s really going on here.”

“Ohhh-kayyy. Fill me in.”

“Dad and Wanda want to have one night together without prying eyes and my
judgmental attitude
,” she placed the words in air quotes with her fingers before returning her hands to where they’d rested before, arms crossed.

“Wow.”

“I’m not so young that I don’t know what goes on between a man and a woman,” she announced. “I know.”

“Oh, you do, do you?”

“They teach sex ed in sixth grade. Not that it kept Susie Harrolsen from getting knocked up in seventh.”

I blinked. “Pietr,” I said. “Strip. Now.”

He stared at me, surprised by my sudden change of attitude.

“If my darling sister believes she’s so worldly that she understands all the stuff that goes on between a man and a woman—and supposes that stuff goes on between our father and Wanda … Well then—we might as well give her the full monty.”

Pietr began to peel out of his clothes, T-shirt first, and Annabelle Lee began to blush.

Pietr’s hands moved to his jeans, watching me all the time.

Annabelle Lee gasped, hands flying to cover her eyes.

I stopped Pietr before he’d even unbuttoned and leaned over to tug my little sister’s hands away from her face. “Don’t pull that
I’m old enough to handle anything
crap with me,” I warned her softly. “I want you to stay young as long as possible. So pardon me for calling your bluff. Thank you, Pietr. Back to plan A.”

Pietr’s eyes began to glow and Annabelle Lee’s mouth and eyes began to widen as the sounds of joints moving and slipping and bones shifting began and Pietr’s face stretched and distorted into the wolf’s heavy head.

Annabelle Lee screamed and Pietr changed back, blinking to clear his vision.

I brushed his arm as I went around the table and grabbed Annabelle Lee. “See,” I soothed her, wrapping an arm around her shoulder. “It’s Pietr. Just Pietr.”

The shock on her face shamed Pietr so much he looked away. “He’s a
monster
…?”

The word stung.

“No. He’s no monster. He’s a werewolf. An oborot. But more than that, he’s Pietr. Just Pietr.” I stroked her hair. “Sometimes he changes, and wears a beautiful wolfskin and prowls the night. But he’s always Pietr.
My
Pietr.”

He looked at me, bashful and thankful all at once, eyes filled with a loyalty I’d never thought I’d have from anyone.

“Isn’t he amazing?” I whispered, my eyes holding his a moment.

Annabelle Lee nodded, mute with wonder. “Pietr,” she agreed, finally finding her voice, “you
are
amazing.” Her face grew briefly serious. “Do it again!” she commanded, clapping her hands together.

And he did, laughing at her eager acceptance.

My alpha
.

Jessie

I finally stopped the strange new sensation that seemed to be the “My Boyfriend’s a Werewolf” show. Pietr had done hands to paws, stopping at the freaky in-between stage, wolf’s head, wolfman face.… An entire repertoire. And Annabelle Lee had marveled at him the whole time.

I didn’t want to take this away from Pietr—the fact that being what he was was truly remarkable, but deep in my gut a new worry gnawed. What if being accepted for this special part of him gave him one more reason to hesitate about taking the cure? If he could be loved as the oborot he was born to be—no matter how briefly—could that be enough for him to decide a short life of truth was better than a long one denying your roots?

“Okay, that’s enough,” I announced.

Annabelle Lee hugged Pietr tightly and confessed, “That was waaay cooler than the last gothic novel I read! Oh.” She turned to me and dug something out of her pocket. “The lawyer got back the stuff they took from you at check-in. Here.”

She held Mom’s netsuke rabbit pendant out to me.

I hugged her so tightly she squirmed to catch her breath.

Putting the pendant on, I took her downstairs, said good night, and wondered briefly if her first instinct about Dad and Wanda might be accurate. I shuddered at the thought. Not because I didn’t want Dad happy—I did—but because it was Wanda: weird, dangerous, woman-with-a-past-I-didn’t-know-yet Wanda.

As much as everyone kept trying to protect me and one another, I was also doing my best to protect them.

Climbing the stairs again with my eulogy notes in my hands, I realized that although I was already in love with Pietr, thinking about everything his family had said about his past and the way he so willingly showed my sister what he was in order to help my family—I fell in love all over again that night.

And I fell hard.

There’d been enough time for thinking and research. I needed to be able to better help protect the people I loved.

Alexi

When I heard the knock at my bedroom door I didn’t expect to find Jessie. She stood in the hall, hands on her hips, back straight and chin held high; everything about her body language told me I would not be allowed to refuse her coming request.

“I need your help with something.” Her words were as firm as her stance.

“What is it?”

“I need you to teach me some moves. Fighting.”

“I’m no expert. You’ll have a gun. Or three,” I added, smiling.

“I could be disarmed.”

I opened my mouth to argue.

“Even if I keep a relaxed grip.” She finished the thought I was only readying to say. “Guns jam, too. And run out of ammo. But bodies…” Her eyes grew unfocused and I wondered if she was thinking of how far Pietr had pushed his own body to keep her from the asylum. “Bodies only give out near the end.”

I nodded, noting the grim design of her expression and the determined set of her jaw. “Ask Pietr or Max to teach you. They were always faster and more agile. Even Cat’s an option.”

“I don’t want to accidentally telegraph what Pietr can do by seeing him in action too much. And Cat? I think I’d frustrate her. Max bulls his way through a fight. His methods require more bulk and a Hulk-like power. But you … you can teach the skills to a simple human because you’ve always been a simple human. And yet—you were a believable oborot when it mattered.” She winked at me. “You got skills.”

I looked her up and down, considering. She certainly wasn’t some frail flower that couldn’t handle a little training. She was strong from moving hay and sacks of grain and was agile from competitive horseback riding. She had a sharp focus when it was needed—that was the only way one succeeded at competition shooting.

“If I’m going to teach you anything, I’m going to teach it my way. And only the skills I think will work to your advantage.”

She smiled. “I’m totally cool with fighting dirty, if it helps us out.”

I stood. “
That’s
my girl.”

“Desperate times,” she said, following me outside.

I grinned. “Desperate measures,” I agreed, only waiting until her sneakers touched the grass of the backyard before I lunged at her.

“Crap!” she blurted as I took her to the ground.

Peeling myself off her, I knelt over her legs and peered down at her, catching my breath as she got hers. “First lesson? Expect the unexpected.”

She nodded and her knee slid up to tap my groin as her lips stretched into a smile. “Second lesson?”

I grimaced at the threat. “Be aware of your opponent’s weak points. Nice,” I congratulated her, rolling up into a standing position. I reached a hand down to her.

I tugged her up to her feet, spun us a half step to narrow her stance, and took her down again, sweeping her feet out from under her and this time straddling her chest. “Third? Never trust anyone in a fight.”

I popped off of her and she snared my foot and yanked me down, my ass hitting the ground. “Okay, okay.” I laughed. “Time out. We could grapple for hours and you would learn very little other than basic reactions.” Taking a breath, I coughed. Damn cigarettes.

Jessie climbed to her feet and shook out her knee. “Fine. Tell me how to keep my feet under me.”

“
Da
. Good. We’ll start with that. Widen your stance—feet shoulder-width apart.”

“Like target shooting,” she realized.

“Good, good. Now bend your knees slightly and lower your center of gravity.…”

Jessie

“I need you to read this, O, editor,” Pietr whispered, coming up behind me in the sitting room on silent feet.

I turned to face him, my hands still damp from washing up after training with Alexi. I was stiff. Tired.

Probably bruised. But I knew a few more things than I had known before, so I chalked the experience up as a win.

I took the paper he offered without looking at him. That close to Pietr there was never anything I wanted to see
but
him. “What am I looking for?” I asked, shifting into editor mode. “Spelling, facts? Voice? Flow?”

“Accuracy.”

“Accuracy, I can do,” I promised, thinking of one hit I’d surprised Alexi with.

He leaned forward and plucked something out of my hair. “What—?” He held the dead leaf before me.

“Must have gotten that rolling around with Alexi in the backyard.” I blinked and looked at him. “That sounded so wrong.”

He nodded, eyebrow quirked. Waiting.

“I’m trying to learn a few things from your more experienced brother so I’m ready for our big event.”

His expression didn’t change.

“Yee-ahhh. Not any better, huh?” I laughed.
Our big event
could mean two vastly different things to Pietr. “Lemme just run through the other ways I could get this wrong: Alexi’s teaching me some moves. He’s trying to put the hurt on me. He was putting me into some positions I’ve never tried before.…” I snorted. I couldn’t help myself.

A muscle near Pietr’s left eye twitched.

“He’s teaching me to fight!” I laughed, grabbing his wrists.

He rolled his eyes and groaned. “You,” he whispered. “A school newspaper editor.”

“Hey, buddy.” I grinned. “Editing means we get time to improve the words. We’re allowed to be pretty rough originally.”

He smiled, kissed my forehead, and slipped away, leaving me with the paper.

“‘A Eulogy for Jess Gillmansen,’” I read the title aloud. Oh. Our psychology project. I flopped down in the love seat, pulling my knees up under me.

Jess Gillmansen led a life spent enriching others’ lives. Friend to strays and monsters, she accepted everyone with gracious abandon and loved them well beyond what they ever deserved or dreamed. A true friend and fierce forgiver, she pulled the man in me out to face down the monster I feared and helped make me the best bits of what I am. I would follow her to Hell and back if only to protect her and let her know how much she’s loved. Now and forever.

My hand shook as I set the paper on my knees. “Pietr?”