Hunter's Moon.htm (11 page)

Even this morning, our bodies were charged with energy. It rolled across my skin and made me shiver. Whatever was between us wasn't temporary. I knew that if I took her now it would be as intense and fierce as yesterday.

I pulled back from the kiss, leaving her breathless. She let out a little laugh. "Good morning to you too!" she said as I gently lowered her feet to the floor.

"Now, what did you mean, you're glad I'm back?"

"I was worried." She stopped when she saw my expression. "You don't remember, do you?"

I shook my head with a frown. "What happened?"

She smelled embarrassed and couldn't meet my eyes. She stood and walked toward the fireplace. "I feel just horrible. I didn't mean to let you out… "

"Out?" A buzzing filled my ears. "What do you mean, out?"

She glanced at me, still anxious. She chewed on her lower lip for a moment. "Last night. I went downstairs after we… well, you know. While you were sleeping. I got back to the room a little after dark. I thought it would be okay. But when I got here, you'd already changed."

I was starting to feel butterflies in my stomach. "When I opened the door, you sprang past me, faster than I could move."

Oh, shit! I sat down heavily on the sofa. "You mean I was out all night?"

She turned then and looked at me. "I honestly don't know. When you bolted I tried to follow you. I swear I did. I thought that once you found that you were confined to this floor you'd come back to the room with me.

I had a flash of memory, just like yesterday. I stalked the hallway, feeling trapped. There were walls all around me. They led in a circle. I remember one man exiting the elevator as I walked past. I bared teeth at him and snarled. He backed into the elevator before the doors shut. I felt his fear as I passed and it was good. Fear was a good thing. Sour and sharp. It made me hungrier, though.

Sue's words sifted through the memories of grey walls and black carpet; where scents were visible in the air like faded watercolors. They were recollections of a world sharply focused and alien.

"You slowed down when you heard my voice," she continued. "But something else caught your attention. I don't know what. You headed toward the window at the end of the hall. It was almost faster than I could see. But I could feel it." There was an odd edge to her voice. I looked at her. She hugged herself and shivered.

"I could literally feel you move. Experience your anxiety. You felt trapped. Before I could react, you took a running leap and went… "

"Right through the window," I completed softly, distantly. I remembered it now. I saw the moon through the window and needed to reach it. Needed to touch it, let it touch me. I leapt and I soared through the air. The window glass felt like tissue paper. It was nothing to me.

Sue nodded. "I was terrified. We're nine stories up!" She walked toward me and drenched my senses in the clove-scent of pride with a healthy dose of fear. "I rushed to the window. I couldn't believe it. I saw you jump into space and then land on the roof of the hospital across the street. Across the street!" Her voice held amazement but her scent was still pride.

I knew that it should be a big deal. Really. But it didn't feel like I was straining at the time-. It was just an average jump. Nothing special.

"I felt you jump, felt my muscles react and my breathing increase. It was incredible; wonderful. Like flying but better."

I nodded, still lost in the dream of it. I felt free. So trapped for so long and I was finally free. It was my turn to shiver.

"You ran to the other end of the roof and then I don't know where you went. I could feel you go but I lost sight of you."

I knew where I went. I needed trees. I needed meat. I picked up the story where Sue left off. I could hear my own voice from a distance as if I were narrating a movie. "I needed the night. Too trapped for too long," I heard myself say.

Sue nodded in agreement and hugged herself again. "I felt that too." She smiled suddenly and it was beautiful. "God, it felt so good to run. I could feel your muscles stretching, your body moving and it felt so incredibly… incredible." She looked at me then. Her smile was radiant. Tangerines blended with the cloves, buoyed by her own summer forest. As scents go it was a serious turn-on.

"Why do you coop yourself up in this room? You loved it out there. In the night. The fresh air, the scent of trees and rocks… I didn't even know that rocks had a smell until last night. But I stood there at the window after I couldn't see you anymore. I could feel you, sense you. Smell through your nose, see through your eyes. Well, actually, that's not quite true. I couldn't actually see but I could feel you react to what you did see. What kind of duck was it?"

I remembered that too. The image was so strong it sucked me back inside. The pond at the city park; the cattails where I lay in wait. Even now I could smell the musty scent of rotting vegetation. I saw the bloated body of a small-mouth bass float by as I watched the birds move closer. It was a male duck. He separated from the group and moved toward shore. I could feel a small line of saliva drip from my lower jaw as I watched.

I moved closer, each paw settling quietly into the moistened undergrowth. And I could feel Sue there. Knew she was with me. It felt right. My mate should be with me in the hunt.

"Pintail," I finally said.

"The taste exploded into my mouth when you caught it. I felt like I should bite down, like there was something there to chew on."

I didn't know what to say to that. It had never happened before. Not with anyone.

"Why did you leave the hotel?" I knew somehow that she had.

She shrugged. "I thought that if I could feel you I could find you. But I couldn't. I knew that you couldn't get back into the hotel as a wolf and you wouldn't have any clothes if you woke up outside. So I went after you. I left the door ajar just in case you came back. I guess you got back in."

I tried to recall how I got back to the room. I had awakened on the bed. How did I get back upstairs? I felt my brow furrow as I fought to remember. Nope, not there.

"I have no idea. Maybe the same way I went out?" I suggested.

Sue shrugged. "Maybe. I didn't check to see if they fixed the window."

"And where have you been since then?"

"At the park mostly. But I had to buy some stuff too."

Sue told me that she drove to just outside the city and called her house to say she was staying out of town with a friend. She used a calling card so it would show up as a long-distance call. I nodded in approval and cloves dusted the air again.

She told her family that she wouldn't be back until the following day. Her mother and sister gave it to her with both barrels for leaving without a word. They apparently tag-teamed on two extensions in the house, accusing her of the fiasco in the lobby. She kept up the confused story, claiming to not understand what they meant. She looked at me hopefully, fishing for a compliment.

"I'm proud of you," I told her. "Good job."

"But I'm worried. When you move in, she'll know I was lying about not being in the hotel."

I looked at her sharply. I was afraid of this.

"I might be willing to look at the apartment, Sue." Her cheeks flushed with embarrassment and her scent changed to match. She nodded.

I'd never lived with anyone before. Not even a roommate. I like my privacy. But this… felt somehow natural. Like I was meant to be with this person. All by itself that made me tense.

"Let's go have some breakfast and we can talk about it some more."

The spring tightened in my gut again. Ever one to change the subject, I wiggled my eyebrows at her. "I actually had something else in mind. I've already eaten," I said, pointing toward the empty trays.

She pouted a little bit and it was cute. "But I really am hungry." She flashed a smile designed to melt me. It did, damn it.

"Okay. We'll order some more room service."