Taming the Night (Creatures of the Night Book 1) (21 page)

Al felt fire enter her veins as she saw the anguish in his face. She would rip the woman limb from
bloody limb. Jerry didn’t deserve to be emasculated for being a good and decent guy. He shrugged as if it was of no consequence to him but she could see how much his ex-wife had hurt him.

“And what happened?
” she asked softly.

“I had the divorce papers drawn up, she signed them without argument, she went into labor soon after
, and the baby was still born. She was outraged and tried to worm her way back into my life. She told me she hadn’t meant it and that the ceremony with her husband had been performed when she was young. That it couldn’t be reversed even if she wanted to. She tried everything she could to get me alone, but I kept my mother or fellow officers around when she was nearby.”

“The one time she happened to catch me alone she pleaded and cried and then tried violence.” He took a deep breath and shook his head. “I should have called someone but I was just so tired… I hit her back. I had taken about all I was going to take from her and I hit her hard. She laughed afterward and said that she had me now. She told me that if I didn’t give her a child
, that she would go to her father and the media.

“I told her she was crazy and kicked her out. The next day her adoptive father, who happens to be a senator, went public with it. I was ruined. My father was a highly decorated officer and I had more than a few commendations beneath my belt
, but it didn’t matter. The one and only place I had hit her, in the face, was plastered all over every television and sleazy magazine… soon I was made out to be a monster.

“I tried to leave Cherish behind, I applied to several other department
s in metropolitan areas, areas where I was sure they needed people bad enough that they wouldn’t mind the record, but the scandal followed me as did her father. He was relentless and any recommendation I might have received was overshadowed by her father’s vehement claims that I was a monster. So I went back to the town I grew up in, where no amount of badgering from the Senator could convince people that I was anything but a good cop.”

The wind was the only noise in the car for some time after he finished. She digested that with what she’d learned
from Bateman. Cherish had been using him for a baby but not because it would be half white, but because it was the only way she could have a human baby.

“She’s one of them,” Al finally said.

“She’s one of who?” he asked.

“She’s a wolf.”

The car swerved a bit and he struggled to regain control as he sent her a sharp look. “What the hell is that supposed to mean? I thought you said-”

“Apparently there are some things Bateman neglected to tell me, like about the fact that there is a man born once every thousand years that can get down and dirty with the creatures and produce a human wolf.”

“And that man would be me?”

“Corriger,
Correct
!”

“S
o there are wolves born between a man and a wolf and they can… transform back and forth! This just keeps getting better and better. And I attract these human wolves and apparently all the wolves on the continent? Why is this happening now? I’m thirty two and I never knew anything about any of this!”

“Apparently you didn’t go through your balance puberty until recently.”

He laughed crazily as he dashed a hand through his hair. “So once every thousand years, all the wolves on the planet go crazy and run the balance to ground to apparently… hump him to death, and people have been able to keep that under wraps?”

Her brow furrowed in thought as she chewed on her thumbnail. She flipped open her phone and got Bateman back on the phone. “Why are all the wolves going so nuts over Jerry? I thought you said he wasn’t
as strong a magnet as me and I don’t make them run from across the country to come and tangle with me.”

“I don’t know. That’s what I’m trying to figure out. I think the answer is in the Imam woman. She has figured out a way to strengthen the signal. There seems to be a pull to Taming as well because even thoug
h you two have left, the wolves still seem to be out in strong numbers there. I’ve had to feed the press a story about wild animal attacks in the area. The mayor is hopping up and down saying that we are ruining their tourism and those hick idiots are going out on mass hunting parties, strengthening the number of wolves.”

“Well I can tell you that the
y are still after us if the shaking cornstalks beside us are any indicator.”

“Don’t worry. The lights will kick up as soon as you enter the compound. They won’t
be able to get you here. Just-”

“We are not coming there.”

“What-”

“The creatures have his mother and uncle. We have to go back.”

“To hell with that. He’s too important to-”

“You think you are going to lock him away in your lab while he’s worried about his family out there. No. We are going back and then I will bring him to you.”

“Al!” She hung up on him before he could say anything else. She saw the smile on Jerry’s face.

“Shut up,” she said and his grin got even wider.

“I didn’t say anything darlin’. Except maybe you are fallin’ in love with this old country boy after all,” he teased in his best North Carolina drawl.

She rolled her eyes as she climbed into the back seat and opened her armory. “We are gonna need more bullets. Luckily it is easy to find some men here in the Sout
h who will play me and pay without an argument on pure gentlemanly merit alone,” she said as she pulled out the tube that held her pool stick.

“I thought you said chivalry was dead.”

“Apparently not in the south.”

*
                            *                            *

Al was right about how easy it was to get into a game, but not about how easy it would be to get anyone to pay. Jerry held his jaw in one hand and dabbed at his fat cut lip with a napkin he’d gotten from the bartender with the other. He sent a scathing look towards Al who smiled as she pushed the sports car to its limit. He thought he could drive but she seemed to revel in the speed of the thing.

“Honey. If I wasn’t already in love with my bike I might be smitten,” she said as she shifted again. Her hair was loose and wild and whipped every which way.

“You know I don’t mind you standing up for yourself,” he spat at her.

She sent him a quick glance and then shook her head. “I didn’t want to make you feel like I didn’t trust you to handle him.”

“Well just so you know, I’m okay with my women standing and fighting beside me, not cowering behind me like they can’t handle themselves.”

She laughed out loud at this and some of the anger melted from his heart. He always loved to hear her laugh. “You should have seen your face when I ducked behind that bar stool like a poor little woman being protected by her big strong man.”

He lifted his casted arm up to her. “Can I remind you for just one minute that I am temporarily handicapped?”

“You seemed to handle yourself well enough in the bar,” she replied and he sent her yet another crossed look. “Okay, okay. But I thought since you know all that cop mumbo jumbo-”

“It’s not okay for me to be using all that cop mumbo jumbo in every day situations. I could have really hurt that guy.”

“And do you think if my temper got flared it would be a better scenario shug?”

He stopped to consider that. She was right. Of the two of them she had the more lethal force. His arguments were silly. He may hav
e saved the guys life tonight. Not that she would have intentionally killed him. But she probably could have hurt him much worse than Jerry did and at least he had his dignity after Jerry had taken him down. If it had been Al then it would have been seventeen times worse.

“Still. I wasn’t the one who was sharkin’ that guy. It wasn’t my fight.”

“But I am so glad you’ve got my back honey. I can’t think of anyone that I’d rather have it,” she purred and sent him a stare that went straight to his soul. He groaned.

“Don’t start with your teasing again.”

“Oh there ain’t no teasin’ here, you say the word and I’ll pull off to the side of the road and-”

“How old are you?”

She stopped short at his question. He saw the shock register on her face before her intensely cool façade returned. “I’m drinkin’ age,” she teased.

“Are you over a
hundred years old?” he asked and waited.

She shook her head but the smile faded from her eyes.
“I… can’t be sure exactly how old I am.”

“What do you mean? Has it been that many centuries?”

“Naw. I’m certainly not older than a hundred, or even older than fifty. I am but a babe compared to some of the others. Let’s see. I turned about eight years ago and then I was… twenty six or so. So that would make me thirty three I guess. I just haven’t kept track.”

“What year where you born?”

“Is there a point to all this?”

“I jus
t want to know if you’re robbin’ the cradle or surfin’ the grave?”

She laughed out loud again and he was glad for that. He hated it when she used her sexuality to try and distract him. It wasn’t fair because she was so damn sexy.

“Don’t worry. I think we may be neck and neck in the ole age game.”

He reached out and caressed her face with the back of his ha
nd. He let his fingers trail along the curve of her neck before they came to a rest at the soft skin of her shoulder. He stroked the smooth skin there, soaking up the texture of it with his fingertips, memorizing the feel of her flesh with his own.

“You still look twenty six,” he said softly as he leaned in and kissed the place where his fingers had rested seconds ag
o. She hissed and pulled back. She had to hurry to correct the car.

She pulled into a gas station. It was nearing time for their last pit stop. They needed to be fueled and ready to drive through the night. She looked up at him and he saw a hunger so raw that something inside him wanted to answer to it immediately. If she wanted it he would open his shirt right here and give it to her.

“Cher. We need to set up some ground rules. If we are not going to get physical with each other then you definitely shouldn’t be touchin’ me like that.”

He blinked a few times at her words. “Oh. Okay. I didn’t mean to overstep,” he said hesitantly.

She relented some at his words and leaned forward. “Don’t go actin’ like I’m the one. I understand. If you don’t want me fallin’ all over you-”

“Why would you think that?
” he asked incredulously.

“Well… I mean you got us separate hotel rooms, what more do you need to say to let a woman know that the fun time is over. I guess you got w
hat you needed in the cave and-”

Jerry sat forward and reached out to her. He pulled her up against him. The gear shaft stuck up between them but he could have cared less if the
Great Wall of China was between them just then.

“You listen to me. I want you. I’ve wanted you since the first moment I
laid eyes on you. Who wouldn’t? You are wild, desirable, gorgeous, courageous, sexy, and smart as hell. Every man wants you and every woman wants to be you and any person that can’t see that is a damn fool. The only reason I didn’t get us the same hotel room was because I didn’t want to be the kind of jackass who assumes that because he makes love to a woman, he owns her thereafter, and I didn’t want you to think that either. I wanted you to decide.”

Their lips were close and he felt he
r small breaths against his own. She smelled so damn good that all he could do was lean into her and devour her mouth. He drank her in and let his tongue slip in and out of her mouth in a rhythmic motion. She pulled back and looked at him. He saw the color in her eyes had changed.

“We need gas,” she said with
a trembling voice.

He sighed and sat back. “Yes. We need gas.”

He got out of the car and strolled into the gas station. The attendant tried to hide his blushing smile. Jerry looked over and saw that there were a bank of monitors that showed the different pumps. He selected a few items to munch on while they drove and went to the counter.

“Fifty
on pump three and the show was free,” he teased as he winked and strolled off sipping his fountain drink. Al was pumping the gas.

“How is it that a woman can pump gas but not engage in a bar fight being fought in her honor?”

“Women are fickle creatures aren’t they?”

“Oh… Oh my God ladies and gentlemen. What have we here? A big bad ass
biker woman teasin’ a little ole country boy. Will wonders never cease.”

“Shut up and get in the car before I take you straight back to Bateman.”

“God forbid it. He might have one of those flashy mind thingy’s and we will both be screwed.” He chewed at a liquorish stick and offered her one above the car. She made a face.

“What’s wit
h the face, you don’t like liquorish, or can you not eat food?”