He shook his head and opened the door. "Out. And please, kid, I never want to see you again. "
"Thanks, Bud. Again. For everythi
ng. I'm pretty sure that knife of yours saved my life. " He looked at my hands expectantly like I'd have it there. "Oh, uh, yeah. Kind of lost it. " Before he could glare I hugged him, then walked out and heard the door slide shut behind me. I'd expected Reth to be waiting, but he was nowhere to be seen. What was the evil creature up to now?
No matter. That was probably as much information, worthless as it had been, as I was going to get. I turned and hurried alone toward Raquel's old office, letting myself hope that they'd found Raquel and she'd be there with them, sitting behind her desk and practicing her arsenal of sighs. As I passed a cross hall I caught sight of someone. My werewolf guard buddy from before. Bleep, bleep, bleepity bleep. Stopping short of putting a hand up to shield the side of my face, I walked as fast as I could without looking like I was panicking.
He didn't see me. He couldn't have seen me. Oh, please, please let him not have seen me.
"Hey! You!"
Could nothing go my way today? I broke into a run, skidding around the corner with Wolfie right behind me. I had just enough time to register Bud at the end of the hall and wonder what he was doing out there, when Bud melted away to reveal the water form of my boyfriend, collapsing to the floor in an unconscious heap.
Time for plan B. Or plan T, really. Time to see how much Wolfie liked Tasey.
Chapter Twenty-Four
PICTURE IMPERFECT
Wolfie growled, narrowing his eyes. "You know, the best way to get a predator to chase you is to run. "
I snorted. "Oh my gosh, did you practice that line in front of a mirror or something?"
He lunged and I dodged to the side, but the hallway was too narrow to maneuver much. I had to keep him away from Lend. I turned to sprint in the opposite direction but was jerked back, my feet nearly slipping out from under me. Wolfie had my collar in his huge hand. I undid the buttons, reached into my suit jacket, and pulled out Tasey. He tried to yank me backward, pulling off my jacket with the effort. Tasey on, I twirled to jab it into his stomach, but he was too fast.
Bleep, I hadn't fought a werewolf ever, and had never had to tase one who was actually expecting it. He grinned maliciously as we circled each other, each looking for an opening.
"I can smell your fear. "
"Again with the lines! What do you think this is, a B movie? News flash: you are not a tortured hero and we're not going to have a hot make out scene after we fight. " I feinted forward, but he twirled to the left and slammed his fist into the side of my head. My vision exploded into stars, everything narrowing and closing off as my brain tried to process the pain.
Taser, Taser, Taser, I thought, desperately trying to claw my instincts out of the blow-to-the-head stupor, but before I managed to, he had grabbed my hand and smashed it down onto his knee. Tasey clattered uselessly to the floor as he twisted my arm behind my back, forcing me to bend over in pain.
"Whose movie is it now?" he hissed in my ear, pushing me to my knees.
"That's quite enough of that," Reth said, and I'd never been so glad in my entire life to hear his smooth, golden voice. Wolfie abruptly let go of my arm. I jumped to my feet and backed up.
Reth had a finger underneath Wolfie's chin-the werewolf security guard's face was blank bordering on slaphappy as he stared at Reth. Judging by the look on Reth's face, though, Wolfie was going to meet a very bad end. Immediately.
"Wait!"
"Hmmm?" Reth didn't look up at me.
"Don't kill him. "
"May I remind you that you can no longer control me? This thing was going to hurt you. "
"It's not his fault. I mean, he's a jerk, sure, but he didn't ask to be here. " And it was a little bit because of me. Dang guilt. I picked up my jacket and Tasey. "Can you just make him go to sleep or something so he can't sound an alarm?"
Reth finally looked at me, his eyes narrowing. "You are far too attached to the transient lives of this realm, Evelyn. If you opened up your vision like you should, you'd realize that none of this matters. "
"Matters to me. So please. Put him to sleep. Temporary sleep, not euphemistic sleep. "
Finally, Reth's eyes relaxed and he turned back to Wolfie, tracing his fingers across the guard's forehead. Wolfie's eyes rolled back in his head and he dropped, none too softly.
I didn't feel bad about that. "Thanks. Where were you?"
"I had some business to attend to. "