Bloodlines (15 page)

“It sounds very freeing,” he replied.

Randall stretched, arms up to the sky, before collapsing down on himself and going back to leaning against the side of the van. “That’s the point,” he agreed. Then, whole body pricking to attention, he murmured, “Here comes Jed.”

Sure enough, there was the muffled noise of cursing and someone crashing through the underbrush toward them. Jed came into view, red-faced, and stumbled to a halt, hands on his thighs, puffing out huge, shuddering breaths. “Oh, fuck me,” he managed between gasps for air. “I think I have a hernia. Can you die from a running fucking hernia?”

“I’m not sure that you can get hernias from running,” Victor pointed out calmly, looking up from his book, shadows cast out onto the grass from the sour yellow glow of the van’s overhead light. “I thought you’d last longer. You do always boast about your stamina.”

“Blow me” was Jed’s eloquent answer as he flopped down onto the grass, spread eagle, looking worn out. “Oh, God, I think I’m dying.”

Victor rubbed a hand over his mouth to smother a laugh. He retrieved a water bottle from his bag and stepped out of the van to stand over Jed, holding the water out for him. Redford came running out of the undergrowth, nosing at Jed and pinning him down with ninety-five pounds of contented wolf.

Groaning a little, Jed did manage a smile, genuine behind the fact he was still heaving in air. His fingers tangled in Redford’s fur, rubbing behind his ear. “See?” Jed muttered, head falling back onto the ground. “Told you I could keep up.”

Edwin was next, racing out of the woods and piling on top of the two of them. His tail was wagging frantically, and he happily licked everyone he could reach before he took off again, howling loudly. There was a howl in the distance in reply, likely from Anthony. At the sound of it, Victor could see Randall starting to look longingly at where Edwin had run off to, his knuckles white as he gripped his book.

“Randall,” Victor murmured. “You should go.”

Randall glanced between Victor and Jed, hesitating. “I feel bad leaving you. Both of you,” he hastened to add. “No offense, but it’s dark and you don’t have my eyes.”

“I also have no doubt that you three will smell any potential danger
long
before it even comes close to us,” Victor said. “Go, have fun. We’ll be quite fine.” It was, surprisingly, almost painful watching Randall deny his urge to change. It seemed wrong to have a wolf hold back like that.

After what seemed like a long few moments, Randall finally nodded. Some of the tension eased from his shoulders as he gave in. “Fine. But I’ll be in earshot.” He flashed a smile, wolfish and eager. “And I can run faster than you’d think. You’ll be fine.”

Randall stripped off his sweater, folding it neatly on the seat of the van. His shoes were next, followed by his jeans, until it was just Randall standing naked under the full flush of the moon.

Victor knew he shouldn’t stare. It was completely rude of him to stare. He had the feeling that if this were happening at any other time, Randall would be stammering and blushing, embarrassed. But now, with the shift approaching, he was standing straight and tall, confident, his eyes slowly changing to yellow.

And he was
startlingly
well built. Victor hadn’t anticipated that a body like that would be hidden under the sweaters and shyness. The muscular definition on the man was something that Victor felt he could quite happily spend a very long time visibly appreciating. He was all lean limbs and smooth skin, and oh God, Victor should really stop staring.

Randall shifted, skin becoming fur, body elongating, until instead of a man there was a wolf. In contrast to Edwin’s dark-gold fur, Anthony’s deep brown, and Redford’s dappled red, Randall was more mottled, cream-colored muzzle fading into tan. Randall circled Victor’s legs, lightly nudging him with his muzzle.

Victor had very briefly had contact with Redford in his wolf form, once, back when they’d been taking some of the kidnapped victims to the hospital. But he was still hesitant about reaching down to gently place his hand on Randall’s head, his fingertips bumping against his ears. It seemed wrong to just put his hands all over a creature so free.

Randall pushed into Victor’s touch, chuffing softly. Apparently he didn’t mind getting his ears scratched, so Victor kept it up, careful in his touch. He was well aware that Randall was not like, say, Knievel—Randall wasn’t going to bite his hands if he touched him in a way Randall didn’t like—and he was still cautious, though Victor was relaxing into it somewhat. Wolf fur was a lot coarser than he’d imagined.

A soft, contented rumble came from Randall, and he rolled over, showing his stomach. There was amusement in Randall’s expression. If a wolf could be said to smile, he was now. Victor frowned down at him. “Are you all right?” Why was Randall rolling around on his back?

Randall’s tail stopped wagging. With a sigh, he got back onto his feet, shaking off his coat. Redford was making a low huffing noise in the background like he was laughing at Victor, and Jed was laughing too. “What?” Victor gave Jed a questioning look. “I’m missing something incredibly obvious, aren’t I?”

“Goddamn, princess,” Jed said with a grin. He was sprawled on the ground with Redford, rubbing under his chin happily. Knievel was stalking Redford’s gently waving tail through the grass. “You never had a dog, did you?”

Victor shrugged. “I’ve never particularly had the time to care for one. I can’t even keep plants alive. Why?”

“For someone who’s supposed to be so smart, you’re kind of missing the point,” Jed commented. The man looked awfully smug. “You never heard of a pack animal showing their stomach before? He’s submitting. Giving you his throat. I think it’s kind of a big deal.”

Randall had moved away from him and was sitting now, back to Victor, staring out into the woods. He lifted his head, howling, listening for his brothers’ response.

Victor promptly felt rather stupid. He took a tentative step closer to Randall, lowering his voice. “Er, my apologies. I’m afraid I’m not well versed in wolf body language.”

Randall looked back over his shoulder to regard Victor for a moment. The moon was pouring down onto him, silver light making his eyes shine, making him look like so much
more
. He got up, shaking himself off, and stalked over to Victor. He pressed his head against Victor’s stomach, pushing him back toward the van. When Victor’s knees hit the edge of the van floor and he sat, Randall put his paws on Victor’s legs, half standing so they were nose to nose.

Then he licked Victor across the cheek.

Chuffing out hoarse noises that Victor was beginning to suspect were wolf laughs, Randall then turned and ran into the woods, disappearing with a flash of his tail. Victor pulled a face, wiping his sleeve across his cheek to clean off the wolf slobber. “I bet you don’t drool on people, Redford,” he said.

In response, Redford opened his muzzle and licked Jed across the cheek, going over his ear for good measure. He looked far too amused about doing so.

“Yeah, that’s another wolf thing,” Jed informed Victor, wiping off his cheek and sprawling under Redford. Knievel had caught his tail and was now happily wrapping her paws around it, her own tail lashing back and forth. “I think it means he likes you, princess. Either that or he’s thinking about eating you in your sleep.”

“Emotional communications via saliva,” Victor said dryly.

“How is that any different than what you normally do?” Jed pointed out.

Victor threw an empty water bottle at him and retreated back into the van.

Two hours later, Jed made his way into the vehicle. He and Redford had been sprawled out together on the ground, the gentle noise of Jed’s voice just barely audible over the cacophony of the night sounds. They’d even run together, back and forth in the tall grass of the clearing, Jed laughing loudly when Redford tackled him to the ground. They seemed to fit together now just as well as they did when Redford wasn’t shifted. It was odd to watch, Jed Walker being so
human
. So very vulnerable.

Finally, though, Redford took off into the woods—after much prompting and encouragement from Jed. Heaving himself into his seat, Jed stretched and groaned before toeing off his boots. He pulled a gun from his waistband and left it on the seat next to him while he settled in and made himself comfortable. Victor just gave him a brief glance and went back to reading. The moon had risen high in the sky now, half the night whittled away, and he couldn’t even hear any howling anymore.

“I’m somewhat surprised you let him go off on his own,” Victor murmured, still more absorbed in his book than the act of talking. “With not even a cell phone or a flare gun or something.”

“I keep trying,” Jed sighed heavily, head tilted back. He’d shrugged off his jacket and was squirming in the seat, trying to find a good position to sleep in. Knievel had appropriated one of his knees, draped over it like a scarf. “But for some reason he won’t wear a fanny pack. Also, no opposable thumbs, so….” Jed shrugged.

Shockingly, Jed didn’t seem to feel the need to fill the silence. Time passed, the overhead light seeming so dim compared to the darkness outside, making Victor feel a little like he was stuck in Plato’s cave with only a single fire to ward off the night. Victor turned the pages of his book, and Jed’s breathing evened out into something quite like sleep.

The idea of chasing sleep was a tempting one, but Victor didn’t think he was going to have much luck trying to get comfortable in the minivan.

“Have you heard from him?” Jed’s voice was low, but not that of a man who’d been asleep. He didn’t indicate who he was talking about. Then again, he didn’t really need to.

“No.” Victor sighed faintly, looking up from his book to glance out the window. David had loved nights like this: clear and cold, completely still. “Have you?”

Barking out a quick laugh, Jed dragged a hand over his face. In the garish light of the overhead he looked tired, worry pinching the corners of his eyes. “Yeah, I don’t think I’m exactly on Davey’s Christmas card list at the moment.” After a beat he shook his head, lips tight. “I tried. Burned through every contact I could think of that we’d used together, tracked him to Russia, maybe, and then Peru. Trail kept going cold. I gave up a few weeks ago, when I lost wind of him someplace in Argentina. Then again, probably was just chasing ghosts.”

“Perhaps,” Victor murmured. “If David doesn’t want to be found, he won’t be. He’s a bit more experienced at doing so than the average human contact you have. No offense.”

Jed didn’t look exactly thrilled to be reminded of David’s
otherness
, of the fact that he’d been both something more and something less at once. “I knew him,” Jed muttered, staring up at nothing. “Shit, princess, I knew him for
years
. Now I don’t really know fuck all, I guess.”

Victor hadn’t seen much of Jed’s reaction to finding out that David wasn’t human. He’d seen the first part, when Jed had thought that throwing garlic pizza at a vampire was a hilarious thing to do, but all he knew of after that was that Jed had hidden in his hotel room for some time. He imagined that the knowledge must have been quite a shock, especially to Jed, who didn’t really mingle with the supernatural crowd.

“And in those years that you knew him, he was exactly the same person as he was after you found out what he was,” Victor pointed out. “Except for the numerous lies he told you, I assume.” He frowned, staring out the window. Honestly, he had no idea how David had convinced Jed for so long that he was human. “He wasn’t at his best in Cairo, either. If you’re going to judge him, don’t judge him because of that.”

“This ain’t some after-school special about giving your mommy and daddy the ‘I fuck boys’ talk,” Jed growled. “He sure as hell
wasn’t
the guy I knew. Because instead of being a kind of stick-up-the-ass contact who dated like it was changing socks, he was a guy who
ate
people. And now I gotta live with the fact that, as close as I was, as much as I thought I understood, everything was wrong. So fuck you, Victor, and fuck Cairo. He would have killed you if Redford hadn’t smelled it going south. And you wouldn’t have been the first.”

Victor just stared at Jed for a few seconds, then dipped his gaze back to his book. He really had nothing to say to that. What
could
he say? That if David had killed him, he wouldn’t have particularly minded at the time? It was true, but it was also likely to send Jed into a cursing fit, and Victor wasn’t in the mood to put up with one.

After a long moment, Jed murmured, so quietly that it almost didn’t count as out loud, “Just wish I didn’t worry so much about the stupid fucker.” Leaning forward, Jed twisted the key, turning off the lights. “Go to sleep, Victor. You’re gonna run down the battery.”

Victor blinked hard as he tried to adjust to the sudden darkness. At a loss for what to do, he slotted a bookmark between the pages he’d been reading and put the book down on the seat next to him. There was a far-off noise, a long, drawn-out howl that reassured him somewhat. At least one of the wolves must be close.

“As much as David could trust anybody, I think he trusted you,” Victor said into the darkness. His sight was beginning to adjust, bringing Jed and the interior of the van into sharp relief, the pale moonlight shading everything white and black. “He’ll contact us when he’s ready.”

There was a sharp snort that summed up what Jed thought of that. But Victor could see him rustling around, and then a blanket hit him in the face. “Sleep, princess,” Jed commanded, but there was a softness in his tone, under the weariness. “We’ve got a long day coming.”

Victor heaved a sigh, but he nonetheless dragged the blanket off his face and twisted himself to lie across two of the seats. It was hardly comfortable. “Pity. I was looking forward to braiding your hair and watching romantic comedies together. We were having such a nice talk too.” One that he was glad was over.

Jed gave a loud, genuine laugh, and Victor could see the other man peering over the back of the seat at him. “You’d be surprised, professor,” Jed said around his grin. “I do a mean french braid.”