Second Skin Part 11

"Then," I said, "then, it was a really long f.u.c.king night and I finally managed to find the highway and get back to the city."

"C'mon, Wilder," said Bryson. "I'm not stupid. What else?"

"That's debatable," I muttered. It seemed like the thing behind me, the noises, the certainty that if I didn't run I would die were years ago, not last night.

"Luna, help him out," said Mac. "G.o.ds know he needs it."

"There was . . . something, in those woods," I said. "I don't know what it was, but it wasn't a human or a were. I'm sure I got left there for it to hunt. Those people didn't expect me to get away."

"How did you?" Bryson asked. I looked him straight in the eye.

"I ran like h.e.l.l, David."

"Okay." He reached over and flicked off the recorder.

"Off the record. You got any enemies, besides the ones I know about? You been poking people that don't want to be poked? I know you, Luna. You could p.i.s.s off a nun."

"Considering that the O'Halloran case tanked my career and I have no personal life, David, no." I crossed my arms and dared him to pry harder. I'd already gone over a list of anyone who could want me dead. Mostly, they were dead themselves. I didn't plan it that way, but it was fact. I had no idea why I'd been chosen.

It infuriated me.

Mac cleared his throat at Bryson after he stared at me with the fish-eyed expression for a few seconds too long. Bryson smoothed his tie and recovered. "All right. Thanks, Luna. You want me to take you home? We've already got uniforms on the place in case they try again."

"No," I said. "I want to stay and go over case files. The guy who s.n.a.t.c.hed me might be in there."

Mac and Bryson exchanged a look. "What?" I demanded.

"Luna," said Mac, "you're part of this case now. I couldn't let you a.s.sist Bryson any longer even if I wanted to."

"So I'm supposed to just go home home?" I hissed. "They tried to kill me! I can't just sit on my a.s.s and do nothing about that, and you shouldn't ask me to!"

"It's what I'd ask of any victim," said Mac. "Not just you. Go home, Luna. Sit tight, let Dmitri pamper you, and we'll call as soon as we have any news."

"Yeah, there's a huge Hexed chance of that," I snapped, then got up and stomped out of the interview room, slamming the door hard enough to rip the handle out of the frame.

Sunny picked me up without asking any questions. She was quiet most of the way to the cottage except to make sure I wasn't grievously injured and left me off in the driveway. I knew she was working herself into a royal snit about me getting myself hurt-again-so I didn't push for conversation.

"Wait," I said when she put the car in gear to drive away. "Can you . . . come in?"

Sunny's eyebrows crinkled. "Everything okay between you and Dmitri?"

"Have things ever been 'okay' between me and Dmitri?"

She shut off the ignition and walked with me to the cottage, where Dmitri jerked the door open with a wild, black-eyed expression on his face.

"Where the Hex have you been?"

"The police station," I said wearily. "Giving a statement."

I expected more yelling, but I didn't expect Dmitri to grab me and crush me to him, kissing my forehead and my eyelids and finally my lips, long and slow enough that my wire-strung body finally relaxed a bit.

"I came back and you weren't here," he murmured against my lips. "I thought you . . . well . . . I don't know what I thought. Luna, I can't lose you."

"I'll just go make some chocolate milk for Luna," said Sunny, slipping past us. "She used to like that after a hard day . . ."

"Sweetheart, I'm okay," I whispered into Dmitri's neck. "I'm here."

"Come on," he said, wrapping his arm around my shoulder. "Let's get you upstairs."

I let myself lean on Dmitri as he guided me to lie back on the bed and got me clean pajamas and a wash-cloth. He dabbed the dirt off my face, his breathing next to my ear going rough and hot.

"Something the matter?" I asked.

He stopped washing my face, and looked up at me, and then crushed one of my hands in his. "Luna, I'm sorry."

I blinked. "Sorry for what?"

"This . . . what happened . . . this is all my fault."

"Oh, Dmitri." I squeezed his hand. "Don't be silly. None of this was anyone's fault, except maybe the b.a.s.t.a.r.ds who kidnapped me."

"No!" he growled, hitting the headboard. "If I had been there, I could have protected you! If I had just made you listen . . ."

I removed my hand from his grasp. "Hey."

He stopped mid-tirade. "What's wrong? Are you hurt? Do you need your pain medication?"

"Do I look look like I need my d.a.m.n pain medication?" I put my hands over my face and pushed the tangled black ma.s.s that on good days was my hair away from it. "Dmitri, the only thing that would have happened if you'd been there is that you'd be as banged up as I am, or worse. These people knew what they were doing. Nothing you like I need my d.a.m.n pain medication?" I put my hands over my face and pushed the tangled black ma.s.s that on good days was my hair away from it. "Dmitri, the only thing that would have happened if you'd been there is that you'd be as banged up as I am, or worse. These people knew what they were doing. Nothing you or or I could have done differently would change what happened." I could have done differently would change what happened."

Before my internal censor could suggest that the next words were maybe not the best idea, they were out. "Believe it or not, Sandovsky, not everything that happens around around you is you is about about you. If you were really concerned, you'd be asking what you could do to find the sons of b.i.t.c.hes that did this." you. If you were really concerned, you'd be asking what you could do to find the sons of b.i.t.c.hes that did this."

"Oh, they're dead," said Dmitri. "That's a given. Luna, I understand that you're upset . . ."

"No," I said softly. "You don't. I want someone to stand next to me, not in front of me. I'm going to deal with the people who did this to me in my own way. What I'd really like is to know that you'll help me, not chastise me."

He paced away to all the corners of our bedroom, the cords in his arms standing out as he looked for something to hurt . . .

"When you went missing," he said finally, looking out the window at the gentle whitecaps rolling under the afternoon sun outside, "my first thought wasn't that you were cheating, or stolen. I thought Well, man, that's it. She finally got sick of your a.s.s and she left. Well, man, that's it. She finally got sick of your a.s.s and she left. I promised that if you came back I'd try to do better. But you make it so G.o.dd.a.m.n hard, Luna." I promised that if you came back I'd try to do better. But you make it so G.o.dd.a.m.n hard, Luna."

"You don't make it easy, either," I told him.

"I'll back off this thing," said Dmitri, and his jaw twitched even speaking the promise. I knew it went against every instinct he had as a pack were. Pack weres avenged wrongs done to their mates. They protected them. But I didn't want that, and I knew it wounded him.

"Thank you," I said. I stood up, even though it hurt, and went to him, leaning my cheek against his back. I slid my arms around his waist and swayed as he swayed, listening to his heartbeat echo itself. "I love you, Dmitri," I murmured. "I like it when things are like this. Let's try it more often."

He purred as my fingers stroked over his stomach and then sighed. "Luna," he said. "I'll back off here, but you have to promise me something."

I went stiff before I could stop myself. "What?"

"If I leave you to dispense justice on this, you let me make you a Redback. Once and for all, you and me. Together."

I jerked away from him and crossed my arms, breath coming in furious little pants. "Not this this. Not again again."

Dmitri threw up his hands. "What? What's so un-f.u.c.king-reasonable about wanting my mate to be committed?"

"You don't get to attach some kind of G.o.ds-d.a.m.n conditions conditions to any of this!" I shouted. "This happened to to any of this!" I shouted. "This happened to me me and and I I am gonna be the one to see it through. I want your help, Dmitri, but I don't want this!" am gonna be the one to see it through. I want your help, Dmitri, but I don't want this!"

"Well, tough s.h.i.t, princess, because this is what you signed on for!" He jabbed his finger over the place where his heart beat. "I look after my women, and I don't let them run off and get hurt!"

"I'm not your property, property," I shrieked, "and maybe if you'd done a little bit better job of looking after your women, your women, Lilia would still be alive and I wouldn't feel second-cla.s.s whenever you bring up your f.u.c.king pack!" Lilia would still be alive and I wouldn't feel second-cla.s.s whenever you bring up your f.u.c.king pack!"

Dmitri stopped, just froze in mid-shout like I'd zapped him with a stun gun. "s.h.i.t," I said, the words slipping out and tumbling over one another like water as I tried to make right what I had just done. "Dmitri, I'm sorry. That was so uncalled-for. Lilia and you is none of my business."

"It's like that?" he asked me, and I could tell that he was close to losing control, that the daemon was cleaving his conscious mind with a desire for my blood.

Lilia was Dmitri's former mate, before he and I even met. She died at the hand of a serial killer, and Dmitri still moaned her name in the night, when he tossed and sweated in his sleep.

"No," I said. "No, it's not not like that. I love you, Dmitri. I'm just not sure how to make this work. You don't want me Insoli, I don't want to be . . . committed. I just haven't figured it out yet, but I like that. I love you, Dmitri. I'm just not sure how to make this work. You don't want me Insoli, I don't want to be . . . committed. I just haven't figured it out yet, but I will. will. I will." I was begging and I pressed my fingers over my gritty eyes, disgusted with the whole situation. I will." I was begging and I pressed my fingers over my gritty eyes, disgusted with the whole situation.

"I'm leaving before I do and say something I regret," Dmitri almost whispered.

"I'm sorry . . . ," I started again.

"You should be," he snarled. That got my hackles up again.

"Fine, if you're gonna be a child, then Hex you!" I yelled.

Dmitri spun to leave and almost walked into Sunny, who entered the room carefully balancing three mugs on a tray. She looked at me, at Dmitri's rage-clouded face, and gave a game smile.

"Who's for chocolate milk?"

CHAPTER 9.

"He's not coming back," I said after Sunny had gone to the window for the fiftieth time. It was dark, but not much cooler. "Hex him. I'm so sick of his Join me or die Join me or die bulls.h.i.t." bulls.h.i.t."

"You might try being a little more understanding," Sunny said severely. "To him, it looks like you don't care enough to even consider it."

I held up my hand. "I do not need to be getting this in stereo. I'm me. I'm not a Redback. Why does he have to change me? I'm not a DVD player he can take back to the store and trade up. I'm not here to be a silent partner for his rage issues."

"Tell him that," said Sunny, and I heard the rumble of the bike. I groaned and put my hands over my eyes.

"You want my advice?" Sunny said as the bike's headlamp swept the living room.

"No."

"You accuse Dmitri of being selfish, but you're being self-righteous. Every time he brings up the pack thing, it's an excuse to fight. You like fighting. Stop it. Say no and let that be the end."

And of course, being Sunny, she made perfect sense. I growled. "Maybe if I hadn't been chased through the woods by a h.e.l.lbeast made of fog and teeth, I'd be more inclined to listen, Dr. Phil."

"h.e.l.lbeast?" said Dmitri from the doorway.

Sunny spread her hands. "News to me. What happened, Luna?"

I told them about the thing. Thinking about how it had moved, how rocks pa.s.sed through it, how it moved so inhumanly fast . . .

"I probably just hallucinated it," I said. "I mean, it sounds like Dracula, and vampires are firmly in the Don't Exist column."

"Yes . . . ," Sunny replied slowly. "But there are are things that drink blood. Or were . . . they're extinct now." things that drink blood. Or were . . . they're extinct now."

"Tell that to the thing in the woods," I muttered. I tried to stand, and my foot spasmed. Dmitri caught me.

"Easy."

"There are texts that I studied when I was training with our grandmother that mentioned shapeshifters other than weres," Sunny said. "Skinwalkers, kitsune, Wendigo. But they've all died out in territorial wars, hundreds or thousands of years ago."

"Wendigo," I said, seizing on the only name that sounded familiar. "What are they?"

"f.u.c.king savages," Dmitri rumbled from where he held me, one arm lightly around my waist.

I twisted to look at him in surprise. "You know about this?"

He set his jaw and didn't meet my eyes. "All pack weres around here do."

I pushed away and faced him. "And you were just going to keep that to yourself, then?"

Dmitri sighed and rubbed his forehead. "Luna, the Wendigo are nothing you want to get involved with. Trust me on this."

"You say that about a lot of things, Dmitri, and in case you haven't noticed that hasn't stopped me yet," I snapped. "Spill it."

"Yes, do," said Sunny, coming to my shoulder. I felt the uncomfortable p.r.i.c.kle of her power on the back of my neck. Sunny might not show it nearly as often, but she got angry as easily as me.

Dmitri looked between us, nostrils flaring. "I hate it when you two gang up on me. You know that."

"Tell me," I growled. I growled.

"Fine!" Dmitri said. "Wendigo are barbarians, monsters who have no decency and no humanity. It's no wonder that one attacked you. They hate weres. They hate humans. All they know how to do is consume."

"You're using the present tense," I told Dmitri quietly.