Loving the wolf, p.17
Loving the Wolf, page 17
She checked her other pockets almost frantically, only to discover that she didn’t have her keys anywhere on her. Since her apartment keys were on the same ring as her car keys, she began to question if she’d actually driven herself home at all. Had she taken an Uber and left her keys on the seat of some stranger’s Prius? Or maybe she’d actually walked home and her keys were lying on a sidewalk somewhere? Or maybe her keys were simply still in the ignition of her car, down in the parking lot?
Jenna knew she should probably go back down to the parking lot and check, but suddenly it all just seemed too much to deal with, and she found herself sliding down the door until she was sitting on the floor in front of her apartment. Tears she wasn’t sure how she’d held at bay until now ran down her face.
Images spun through her head as she sat there sniffling softly. Walking into Davina’s club. Hearing the fight long before she saw it. Then the scene of Trevor and Connor throwing each other around the dance floor like some kind of wild animals.
Jenna had felt anxious, remembered looking around the club as she tried to understand what was happening. But then she’d seen her brother’s glowing yellow eyes and fangs so long that his entire jawline reshaped to make room for them. She thought she might have let out a gasp when she saw Connor’s claws.
Claws that were shockingly similar to the ones the ghouls had.
Her anxiety descended into a full-on panic attack at that point. But it wasn’t until Trevor had turned around and she saw the gold eyes and the fangs and the blood that she fell apart. She usually froze in situations like that—the way she had when the ghoul grabbed her sister—but for some reason, this time, she ran.
The details from that point on were kind of fuzzy. Maybe because she might have been disassociating a bit from the trauma of what she’d seen. Normally she’d berate herself for being weak, especially since she’d worked so hard to overcome that, but this time, she was in a forgiving mood. After all, she’d just learned that both her brother and the man she’d been falling in love with were monsters.
She was still sitting on the floor of the hallway, crying softly as she pondered that rather mind-numbing fact, when the door directly across from her opened. Then Madeleine was suddenly at her side, gently urging her up to her feet and into her own apartment.
“Jenna, honey. What happened?” Madeleine asked as she parked Jenna in one of the chairs at the kitchen table, hovering frantically. “Are you hurt? Do you need me to call someone—like the police maybe?”
Jenna got herself together enough to shake her head. “No, it’s nothing like that. I just learned something…alarming…and it shook me up a bit. Then I left my keys in my car—I think—and decided to have a moment. On the floor. In the hallway.”
Madeleine regarded her thoughtfully, her eyes filled with concern. “Wait here.”
Turning, Madeleine hurried out of the kitchen. The apartment was the same layout as Jenna’s, so she knew her friend was heading for the bathroom. A few moments later, she came back with a box of tissues, handing it to Jenna. Then she opened one of the overhead cabinets, coming out with a familiar box of fancy, gourmet hot chocolate.
“I think this calls for some cocoa, don’t you?” Madeleine said, shaking the box in Jenna’s direction and giving her a small smile.
Jenna used one of the tissues to wipe away the worst of the tears. “Depends. Do you have any of those organic little marshmallows?”
Madeleine turned back to the same cabinet the hot chocolate had been in, dug around for a few seconds before coming out with a plastic bag, brow arched. “Did you ever have any doubt?”
Her friend didn’t say anything while she got the cocoa ready, and Jenna didn’t either. Instead, she simply sat there at the kitchen table, wondering what the hell she was supposed to say. Madeleine wasn’t going to accept some generic series of excuses to explain why she’d been crying out in the hallway. Especially after she’d already admitted to learning something alarming.
Jenna wished she was witty and clever enough to come up with some lies and half-truths that would rationally explain this bizarre situation. But that simply wasn’t her. Even if it had been, there was a part of her that wanted to finally open up and tell her best friend the truth. Because she desperately needed to talk to someone. But how the hell was she supposed to dump all this on Madeleine out of the blue after lying to her all this time?
A mug of hot chocolate suddenly appeared in front of her, a dozen marshmallows floating on the top. It smelled delicious and was exactly what she needed right then.
Along with her best friend.
“I’ve been keeping something from you for a while,” Jenna finally said after taking a long sip of perfectly sweetened cocoa and letting the heat of the mug absorb into her hands. “I want to apologize for that first. I should have told you before now, but I need you to understand that I simply didn’t think I could.”
On the other side of the table, Madeleine got a worried look on her face. “What kind of things?”
“Things that are going to sound…well…unbelievable.” Jenna blew on her cocoa before taking another sip. “And coming from me, I know that’s pretty serious. But I’m telling you right now, everything I’m going to tell you is true. No matter how impossible it sounds.”
Now, Madeleine looked downright alarmed. But she didn’t say anything. Instead, she sat there regarding Jenna expectantly, her own cocoa sitting forgotten in front of her.
“First off, the guy who kidnapped my sister ten years ago—the one Trevor and I saw a couple of nights ago—well…the truth is…he’s not actually a guy at all,” Jenna said, not looking at her friend while she spoke. She paused to take a deep breath before continuing. “He’s a member of a supernatural species known as ghouls. They’re underground dwellers who live in small clans, digging tunnels through solid rock with their claws and occasionally kidnapping humans from the surface to use for manual labor but also possibly as a source of food.”
Jenna kept her focus on the mug of hot chocolate in front of her, afraid to see Madeleine looking at her with that all-too-familiar expression of pity. Jenna wouldn’t be able to handle it if she got that from her best friend. Like she’d gotten it from everyone else.
Maybe this had been a really bad idea.
“Your sister was kidnapped by creatures living under the city that eat people,” Madeleine said slowly. “And you’re just getting around to telling me now?”
Jenna lifted her head to look at her friend. She hadn’t expected that kind of response. But Madeleine was sitting there calmly as she waited for an answer to her question.
“Honestly, I didn’t become aware of exactly what kind of creatures they were until the other day,” Jenna admitted with a sigh. “I wanted to tell you, but considering the fact that I’ve been lying to you since I told you about what happened to my sister, it wasn’t like I could come out and suddenly spring the truth on you now.”
“Why didn’t you tell me the truth from the beginning then?” Madeleine asked, obviously hurt Jenna had kept something like this from her. “I’ve known for years that you weren’t telling me everything.”
Jenna blinked. “You have?”
Madeleine nodded.
Jenna sipped her cocoa with a shrug. “Can you blame me? I had no reason to think you’d believe me. No one else ever has—not even my family. I didn’t want to lose the only real friend I’d had in a long time, so I took the easy way out and lied to you.”
It was Madeleine’s turn to sigh. “Okay, I guess I can understand that. I’d like to think that you could have talked to me about anything, even back when we first met, but if we’re being honest, I’m not sure I would have handled the whole supernatural species thing very well.”
Jenna studied her friend. “But you’re willing to buy it now?”
“What choice do I have?” Madeleine took a sip of cocoa. “It’s not like I’d ever call my best friend a liar. Besides, if TMZ came out with evidence that half the people in LA were actually extraterrestrials or cannibalistic humanoid underground dwellers, I wouldn’t be all that surprised. So if my best friend tells me that her sister was kidnapped by a clan of ghouls, I suppose I have no choice but to go along with it.”
It wasn’t exactly the same thing as Madeleine saying she believed her, but right now, Jenna would take it.
“Have you seen any of these ghoul creatures besides the one time in Skid Row with Trevor?” her friend asked, taking another sip of cocoa. “Except the first time you saw one. You know…back then.”
Jenna nodded, understanding what Madeleine was trying to say. “Um, since I’m being honest, then I should probably tell you that we ran into a bunch of them yesterday after I left you at the coffee shop. That’s actually how Trevor, my brother, and their teammates got hurt.”
“What?” Madeleine said in alarm. “You said Trevor got a scratch while down in those tunnels! Are you saying they were attacked by these ghouls…and that you were there?”
Jenna told Madeleine the whole story of how she, Esme, and Maya had gone looking for the guys and ended up getting involved in a pitched battle down in the darkness of the sewers and how they’d barely made it out before the tunnel had collapsed.
On the other side of the table, her friend stared at her incredulously. “So is that why you were outside in the hallway crying? Because Trevor is hurt worse than he let on?”
Jenna shook her head. “No, thank goodness it’s nothing like that. I got a look at his injuries last night when we slept together, and as impossible as it is to believe, they really were nothing more than scratches.”
Madeleine seemed ready to ask another question, but then her eyes sharpened suddenly. “Wait a second. You looked at his injuries while you were sleeping together? Is that sleeping together or sleeping together?”
“Is there a difference?” Jenna asked, arching a brow.
“You know damn well there is,” Madeleine said, leaning across the kitchen table to pin her with a look. “Did you have sex with Trevor or not? And is that why you’re all upset? Did he say something to you this morning about it? Oh, crap! Is he married? Is that the alarming thing you learned this morning?”
Jenna almost spit out her now tepid cocoa at that. How the heck had her friend gone so far off the rails in such an amazingly short period of time?
And people call me crazy.
She set down her mug and held up her hand. “Okay, just stop. Yes, Trevor and I made love last night. And before you ask, yes, it was amazing. No, he didn’t say anything to me this morning that was alarming. And no, he’s not married.”
“Then what the heck is going on?” Madeleine groaned, setting her mug down, but only so she could throw her hands in the air. “Because I’m at my wit’s end here.”
“Trevor has fangs!” Jenna practically shouted, the words coming out so fast they were nearly incomprehensible. She ran both hands through her hair. “I was supposed to meet up with Trevor, my brother, and their friends at a club across town this morning,” she said, her voice much lower now. “We were meeting with a person who might have information on another way to get into the sewer tunnels so we can go back down there to look for Hannah. But the moment I stepped inside, I heard fighting. I knew without a doubt that it was Trevor and my dumbass brother going at it again.”
“Fangs?” Madeleine whispered, eyes wide but still sort of dubious.
She nodded. “When I saw them, they were throwing each other around the room like rag dolls. I thought they were trying to kill each other.”
“Oh my gosh!”
“Then I saw the fangs. Connor’s first, then Trevor’s. Both of their eyes were glowing this vivid yellow gold and they had…”
“They had what?” Madeleine prompted when Jenna sputtered to a stop. “What else did you see?”
“Claws.” Jenna took a deep breath. “Trevor and my brother both had claws. They were long, at least an inch, and sharp looking as hell. Connor must have used his on Trevor a few times because there was blood everywhere. Hale and Mike—their teammates—were trying to separate them, but it wasn’t working too well.”
Madeleine continued to sit there, blinking her eyes slowly, like a deer in the headlights. Finally, her friend shook her head. “Um…what did they say? After they saw you standing there, I mean.”
That was probably an intelligent question, given the situation. Unfortunately, Jenna didn’t have an answer for her.
“I have no idea,” she said softly. “The moment I saw…what I saw…I turned and ran as fast as I could. I don’t remember much after that. I sort of got lost in the sauce, you know? The next thing I knew, I was sitting on the floor crying, and you were helping me up.”
Madeleine was quiet for a long time. “So the guy you slept with last night has claws and fangs like a ghoul. Do you think maybe getting scratched by the creatures means that Trevor and your brother are turning into ghouls?”
She lowered her voice as she spoke, looking left and right, like she thought there might be someone around to overhear. In her own kitchen.
Jenna allowed herself to seriously entertain the possibility that Trevor and Connor had somehow been infected by the earlier ghoul attack. But it didn’t take long to dismiss the idea.
“I don’t think so,” she murmured. “From the way Hale and Mike were dealing with the situation like it wasn’t that big of a deal, I get the feeling they weren’t shocked by the claws and fangs. I don’t know why, but I think both Trevor and my brother are different. I think they’re some other kind of supernatural creature.”
Madeleine’s eyes widened even more. “You had sex with a monster?”
Jenna sagged back in her chair, letting out a long, tired sigh. “I tell you an incredible story straight out of a Hollywood horror movie, and the first thing you jump on is the fact that I slept with a guy who has claws and fangs? That’s the important part you glean from my entire confession? And I never said Trevor’s a monster.” But she had thought it, she was ashamed to admit. “He might have fangs, claws, glowing eyes—and apparently, supernatural strength—but that doesn’t make him a monster. It just makes him different.”
Madeleine stared at her for a bit, probably trying to figure out if she was being serious or not. “Okay, I thought I was onto something, but you don’t seem torn up over the fact that you slept with a guy who’s different. Which brings me back to my previous question. Why were you crying on my doorstep?”
Jenna flushed, more than a little embarrassed about that. “I wasn’t crying on your doorstep,” she corrected. “It was mine.”
“Oh, that does make all the difference, I suppose,” her friend said dryly. “Come on, I’m serious, Jenna. You were obviously upset by what you saw this morning, but if you’re not bothered by him being some kind of supernatural, and you’re not upset about sleeping with him, then I’m a little baffled about what’s bothering you.”
“Honestly, I guess I am, too.” Jenna said softly, realizing she wasn’t sure what had gotten her so spun up. “I mean, sure, I freaked when I saw the claws and fangs, but I think that’s to be expected. Now that I’m thinking about it, I don’t think I genuinely care that Trevor and my brother are different. And I’m certainly not upset that I decided to sleep with Trevor. Like I said, it was amazing.”
Across from her, it was obvious that Madeleine was trying to understand what was going on with her. But she didn’t push the issue. Instead, she sat there quietly, waiting patiently for Jenna to work through it on her own.
It took a while to get there—and another mug of hot chocolate—before Jenna had an idea about what was nagging at her so much. At least it felt like the right answer.
“I think the thing that bothered me the most is that I trusted Trevor,” she said. “It’s probably stupid, but I thought we had this connection. I told him everything about me—every secret I have—and I thought he would be completely open with me, too. I guess I was wrong, though. Now, I can’t get past this feeling that’s he’s somehow betrayed me. Like I said, it’s stupid.”
“I don’t think it’s stupid,” Madeleine said. “You said you kept getting the feeling he was hiding something from you. You think maybe this is that something?”
Jenna hadn’t even thought of that, but it certainly made sense. All she could do was shrug. “I guess so.”
There was a long stretch of silence as Jenna nursed her second mug of hot chocolate, replaying the moment she’d seen Trevor’s transformed face. It had been drastically different from the one she’d spent so much time kissing last night, but it had still been him. Her fingers itched with a sudden need to sculpt what she’d seen. The fangs, the shifted jaw line, everything.
“I’m not defending him,” Madeleine said, interrupting Jenna’s thoughts. “But I gotta think that it’s difficult for Trevor to trust people enough to tell them about the whole claw-and-fang thing. You kept secrets from me, too, remember? Like you, he probably had his reasons. Maybe, now that you’ve already seen him…different…he’ll be able to talk about it.”
“Maybe.” Jenna stood and walked over to the sink to rinse out her mug. She knew from experience how much of a pain it was to get hot chocolate out once it dried.
“What are you going to do?” Madeleine asked as Jenna put the mug on the counter, then dried her hands on a paper towel.
Jenna leaned back against the counter as she considered the question for a few moments. “First, I guess I’ll head downstairs to search my car and hopefully find my keys. Then I’ll come back up here and start working the clay. I need to clear my head, and sculpting what’s trapped in there is the only way I know to do that.”
“Then what?”
“Then I have no idea.”
CHAPTER 16
“I told you to stay away from her,” Connor mumbled softly, his words a bit slurred from the broken jaw that was still in the process of healing. “Now look what you’ve done. Jenna has run off to who knows where, and it’s all your fault.”
