Winter Wolf (34 page)

“Oh, you know Dominic. He’s probably giving us plenty of time to become acquainted.” He gave my hand a squeeze, and the tingling sensation amplified. I covered my mouth as a yawn slipped out.

“Excuse me. It’s been a long few days.”

“Dom had mentioned you were having family troubles. You do look a little tired. Maybe you should get some rest? No one will mind.”

“My friend is going to pick me up in not too long,” I replied, shaking my head. “I’ll have plenty of chances to rest tonight. But thank you for your concern. I’m fine.” I wanted to tell him to go jump off the nearest cliff, but I smiled instead. “Why don’t you tell me a little about yourself?”

I watched the door, awaiting Dominic’s return, only half listening to what Patrick said, praying my opportunity to escape would come sooner rather than later.

~~*~~

It felt like an eternity before Dominic returned. The sound of the door opening startled Patrick enough I managed to free my hand. My fingers tingled, asleep from my effort to keep as still as possible. I wanted to shake my arm to restore circulation, but I clasped my hands on my lap, determine to be polite to my agent’s creepy friend.

“I could have sworn I had put it in there,” Dominic mumbled, crossing his arms over his chest to glare at the door behind the tapestry. “I’m sorry for making you wait, Nicole.”

“Do you need help looking for it?” I asked, eager to do something other than listen to Patrick’s blathering.

“We can help,” Patrick said, jumping to his feet. He held out his hand to me.

Uncomfortable at the idea of letting him touch me again, I smiled at him and stood up without his help. Before he could grab my hand again, I weaved my fingers together in front of me and hurried across the room to Dominic. “It won’t take long if we’re all looking, right?”

Dominic hesitated. There was something melancholy about his smile, but before I could ask him what was wrong, he held aside the tapestry and motioned to Patrick. “Yes, this won’t take long at all, will it Pat?”

“Shouldn’t,” my agent’s friend agreed before stepping through the opening.

“Ladies first,” Dominic said.

Patrick chuckled in the other room. “Are you calling me a lady, Dom?”

I slipped by Dominic into the room beyond. I sneezed as the scent of spices assaulted my nose. I sneezed several more times before I managed to get my itchy nose under control. My eyes watered, blurring my vision. “What were you doing in here? Burning incense or something?”

Dominic stared at me like I had lost my mind. “What?”

I sniffled, rubbing at my nose. Whatever the smell was, it was far stronger than a Fenerec’s cinnamon-dominated scent. When I blinked enough to see the room, I was taken aback by the vast amount of clutter. Boxes stacked to the low ceiling threatened to fall over and block the trail twisting through the room. “Must be dust. Don’t you ever clean in here, Dominic?”

“Well, basements are meant for storage,” my agent replied.

“I never took you as the type to store dust.” I laughed a little, shaking my head. “No wonder you’re having trouble finding it. Why would you put it in a box down here when you knew I’d be coming by soon enough for the contract signing?”

“Stupidity,” my agent replied wryly. “Foolishness. I figured I’d put it in the box nearest the door so it would be easy to find. But then I needed to dig something else out of here…”

“And you lost the box nearest the door?” I asked, eying the haphazard piles. “Divide and conquer, then. How large is this toy?”

Dominic held his hands out in the approximate length of an assault rifle.

“So we eliminate any box too small and find a place to stack those.” I lifted the cardboard flap of the box nearest to me to find neatly folded clothes. “I hope you had the sense to invest in mothballs at least.”

“Yes, Mother.” Dominic laughed. “Thanks for being a good sport about this, Nicole. I’ll start over here. Why don’t you start on the other side with Patrick?”

I didn’t want to, but I eased my way through the maze of boxes. Patrick was bent over one of the boxes, rummaging through a collection of stuffed animals.

“Hey, Dom? What’s the deal with the teddy bears?” Patrick threw one of the animals over my head to my agent.

“My girlfriend likes them. I was going to give them to her as a gift, if you must know. Be careful with those, they’re expensive.” Dominic sighed. “Let’s just find the rifle, okay?”

Dominic had a girlfriend? I leaned around a pile to watch my agent. While he was often quiet about his personal life, I had never imagined him to be in a relationship of any sort. He was married to his work, and while that made him a great agent, I doubted it would make him a good boyfriend.

“You’re going to need to hire a good cleaner to save them,” I said, pointing at the box of stuffed animals. “You should take those upstairs before they’re ruined.”

“Want to bring them over, Pat?” Dominic replied.

I shuffled out of Patrick’s way, sliding by him to take the space he vacated. I went to work opening boxes, marveling at the eclectic collection of men’s and women’s clothes, more shoes than I owned, and children’s toys.

It was like someone had packed up a house belonging to a family and shoved it in the storage space. The only things missing were photographs to show whose life was stashed away in Dominic’s basement.

As I worked my way along the path, I saw a partially obscured door. “Hey, Dominic? Is it possible it’s in the next room?”

Dominic emerged from the piles, covered in a layer of dust. “It’s possible. Let’s check just to be sure.”

I wrinkled my nose, sneezing a few more times at the dust I stirred up. Patrick and Dominic joined me. I turned the knob and pushed open the door.

Cool air blasted me in the face and I recoiled back a step. The scent of spice intensified. Before I could try to figure out the cause of the smell, Dominic stumbled and fell against me.

“Hey!” I protested, stumbling as I tripped over one of the boxes. I fell onto my hands and knees in the dark room, wincing as the impact sent stabs of pain jolting up my arm. “Be careful.”

“Are you all right?” Patrick asked, grabbing my arm to pull me to my feet.

My body tingled and went numb. With a shock of horror, I recognized the sensation as the same I’d felt when the sorcerer in Las Vegas had touched me. I tried to pull free, but Patrick’s grip tightened.

“I’m fine,” I said through clenched teeth, pulling harder. “Dominic, where are the lights in here?”

Something growled in the darkness. I froze, sucking in a breath. The growl continued, so low in tone I wondered if my imagination was playing tricks on me. Why would anything be growling in Dominic’s basement?

The question led me to another, which chilled me. Did Dominic have a
Fenerec
in his basement? The scent, while carrying undertones of cinnamon, wasn’t the same as Richard’s or Alex’s. It was spicier—and soured by an odor similar to rotting eggs.

“Dominic?” My already hoarse voice cracked.

“Looks like it’s just you and me, girl,” Patrick whispered in my ear.

“Let me go, Patrick.”

Instead of listening to my request, he pulled me close to him, slipping an arm around my waist. “Why don’t we get to know each other a little better?”

I reached for my gun before I realized I had left it in my messenger bag. Cursing at myself for my stupidity, I tried to think of what I could possibly use as a weapon. The only thing I had on me was Amber’s cell phone, which I had stashed in my back pocket. I grabbed it and smashed it against the side of Patrick’s head. He staggered back with a curse, releasing me. I tried to sense the phone’s electronics, but to my horror, I couldn’t feel anything.

If I couldn’t use my wizardry on the phone, I’d make sure I hit it hard enough it’d break.

“You bitch!” Patrick roared.

I wound up and threw the phone as hard as I could in the direction of Patrick’s voice. I heard it smash against something, followed by the clatter of metal hitting metal.

“Dominic!” I shrieked.

An arm slipped down my shoulders and around my throat, cutting off my breath. I made a choked gasping noise, instinctively reaching up with my hands to free myself.

The lights flickered on. To my horror, it was Dominic’s arm wrapped around my throat, and he didn’t loosen his grip enough for me to speak.

“I thought you said you would have her wrapped around your finger within minutes,” Dominic snarled.

“It’s not my fault she’s stubborn,” Patrick snapped.

“Just cooperate, Nicole. It’ll be a lot easier if you do.” Dominic’s arm flexed. With my lungs burning with the need for air, I clawed at him. When that didn’t work, I clasped my fist with my other hand and rammed my elbow as hard as I could into his stomach.

His grip loosened and I dropped to the floor. I rolled as Amber had taught me, ending up in a low crouch. I squinted to help my eyes adjust to the light.

The room was far larger than I thought, almost as large as the entirety of Dominic’s office. It was barren except for a single worktable and a cage placed against the far wall.

Within was a wolf far larger than anything else I had ever seen. Its fur was dark and matted, and its teeth were bared. It growled, hackles raised. Silver chains decorated the bars along with dried leaves.

“Don’t be like this, Nicole,” Dominic said.

Cursing myself for being stupid enough to leave my gun where it did me no good, I sprinted the distance to the table and skidded around it to keep it between me, my agent, and Patrick. I snarled, pointing at Patrick, realization making me sick, “I
trusted
you.” If Patrick was a sorcerer, then the man ultimately responsible for the deaths of the women in Las Vegas was likely right in front of me. “That thing is a sorcerer, isn’t he?”

Dominic froze, his eyes widening. “What do you know about that?”

“It seems your little actress isn’t as foolish and blind as you thought,” Patrick said, clucking his tongue. “We only need her body.”

I once again tried to reach out with my senses, but my awareness of electricity had been snuffed out—probably by whatever Patrick had done to me with his sorcery. Snorting my disgust at my foolishness, I tried to figure out how to outsmart two men bigger and stronger than me without my gun.

Amber hadn’t had time to teach me unarmed combat.

“Why do you have a Fenerec caged up in here?” I asked, hoping to buy myself a little time to think up a way to escape. Without my powers, I couldn’t fry either one of them even if I wanted to. While I had charged my stones, they were with my gun.

I had to hold on long enough for the Inquisition to respond to the destruction of Amber’s phone—if they’d come at all.

“She is my beloved,” Dominic snapped, glaring at me. “Don’t you speak of her. I only chose you because of your looks. She will have a human body, and only yours is close enough to her natural beauty. With you out of the way, we can live together again.”

“You’re insane,” I whispered, struggling to believe my agent was the madman in front of me. “
You
were the one who had so many women in Las Vegas murdered? But why?”

Patrick smiled. “You have been paying attention to the supernatural world, haven’t you? An unusual and dangerous hobby for a Normal such as yourself.”

“That doesn’t answer my question.” I remained tense, waiting to move if either one of the men came at me. As Dominic and Patrick had anticipated a fight, the table was devoid of anything I could possibly use as a weapon. “You disgust me, Dominic. Murdering women so you could have a
dog
for a girlfriend.”

The Fenerec behind me snarled at my comment. If I survived whatever Dominic and Patrick planned for me, I’d apologize to her… assuming she didn’t kill me for insulting her kind.

Dominic’s expression twisted and rage burned in his eyes. “You bitch. How dare you speak of her like that?”

I didn’t dare turn to see how the Fenerec had reacted. With luck, maybe she’d become so furious she’d break out of her silver-gilded cage. With the chaos of a loose Fenerec, maybe I could make my escape before she killed me.

Infuriating the wolf was my best and only option. “You haven’t been taking very good care of her at all, have you? Looks like a mangy mutt rather than a
Fenerec
. Are you sure this is really one of them? Scrawny, unhealthy, and I bet she has fleas.” I curled my lip up in as snootily of a fashion I could. “I never once suspected you were into bestiality, Dominic.”

“I’m going to kill you,” Dominic whispered with hatred in his soft words.

I believed him, but I lifted my chin and stared at him, hoping he could see the loathing in my eyes.

“Killing her would defeat your purpose,” Patrick said, holding his arm out in front of Dominic. “We didn’t go through so much to be undone by a few childish insults.”

Dominic stiffened, straightened, and nodded in agreement. “You’re right. You can’t win, Nicole. You
will
help me. If you cooperate, you’ll live.” With a smile, he looked past me to the caged Fenerec. “You’ll be our family dog, unfortunately, but at least you’ll be alive. I owe you that much for your resemblance to my beloved. The least I can do is give you a body.”