Which didn’t make my desire to hunt him down and stuff him any less rage-filled and immediate.
“Vivian Lake can do it,” I said. “She’s the local vet. Wolf shifter,” I added, seeing the look on Alek’s face. I took a deep breath as I stepped away from Rose.
Time to put on my Game Master face and get shit done.
“Levi, call Steve. Tell him no game tonight, family emergency. Ezee, you take Harper up to my place.” I pulled out my keys and tossed them to him. Harper looked as though she’d protest for a moment but then leaned into Ezee with another sob.
“Thank you, Jade,” she whispered. “I don’t think I can, I mean…” she trailed off.
“I know, it’s okay. We’ll figure this out. You have a car?” I said then, turning back to Alek.
Ciaran came down the back stairs from his own apartment with a blanket, holding it out. I gave him a half smile of thanks, glad he’d foreseen that we would want something to carry her in.
Before I could, Alek took the blanket and wrapped Rose up with a gentle carefulness that surprised me. As presumptuous as he was, I was kind of glad I didn’t have to touch her again. He looked at me, apparently waiting for me to lead the way out. Another surprise. Maybe he wasn’t always a macho asshole. Or maybe he just wanted to keep me in front of him so he could keep an eye on me. I shoved away those thoughts.
“Okay, Justice, since I’m betting you’ll want to be there, let’s go see Dr. Lake.”
Nine by Night: A Multi-Author Urban Fantasy Bundle of Kickass Heroines, Adventure, Magic
Chapter 3
Alek didn’t let me drive his truck. Guess the surprises had run out. It wasn’t what Harper and I would joke was a “compensating for it” truck, but a good sized Ford with scratches and dents and a little dirt around the edges that let you know this guy used his truck for things, not just for driving around. The interior smelled of wet grass, damp earth, and a vanilla-laced musk that I was pretty sure came from Alek himself.
My whole body, all my senses, were aware of the huge, handsome man only inches away from me. Not a thing that boded well. The last time I’d been this instantly attracted to someone, he’d tried to fatten me up with magic, Hansel and Grettel style, and then eat my heart. I inched my ass as close to the door as possible, putting a bit more gap between us on the bench seat.
The drive to Dr. Lake’s should have taken about five minutes, but we hit the single stop light on Main and it was red. An old woman, someone I didn’t recognize, which meant she was not a nerd and probably part of the human half of Wylde, inched her way across the crosswalk.
“Where are you staying?” I asked, more out of a need to fill the silence and not think about what was inside the hand-sewn quilt on my lap. There were two tiny motels in town, mostly catering to the College for visiting family and the summer tourists.
“I have a house trailer,” he said. “It’s at the Mikhail and Sons RV Park, you know it?”
Of course I knew it. Mikhail and his two sons were bear shifters. Vasili, the younger son, had a thing for Magic the Gathering cards. His purchases paid my building rent every time a new expansion came out. They were good people. I could just imagine how they’d bent over backward to accommodate a Justice. I bet they hadn’t charged him. I wasn’t going to ask that aloud. I was more curious about this whole vision thing of his.
“So how’s that Justice thing work? Do you just get visions and know where to show up? And why didn’t you see Rose in danger?” I hadn’t meant that last part to sound so accusatory, but fuck it. What’s the point of a supernatural system of law if they can’t help people before someone gets killed?
“Is like a compass,” he said, turning his head to look at me. His eyes were no longer ice chips but deep pools and there was something sad in his gaze. “I know where to go; I know that I will be needed. The visions are what the Nine know, what they share with me in my dreams. I only know what they know. Is not my power, but theirs.”
I noticed his accent got stronger, too, wondering if I’d upset him. It was hard to tell since his chiseled face gave away little.
“From what Harper has told me, the Nine are like gods. Can’t they do a little better than vague visions?”
“They are not gods,” Alek said. “And there is much in the world we cannot control.” His tone and the sudden tightness in his jaw and shoulders warned me this was a dangerous subject.