Lunacy (14 page)

Finally out of the clothes, feeling a bit dismayed
that they were likely going to make a mess of the floor - which
would then require more clean up - I pushed the curtain aside and
stepped into the spray of almost scorching hot water. Steam curled
up from my cold skin in clouds and I turned the temperature down
just a little. I stood under the stream of water long enough for my
hair to be fully saturated before I even bothered investigating the
soap I had to choose from. Unfortunately, everything belonged to
the boys. My luck didn't stretch far enough that I could have
happened upon the bathroom Elomina used and not have to smell like
a dude... But beggars couldn't be choosers, so I grabbed some
shampoo and lathered up. The smell was sharp and woodsy, heady but
not so thick that it was overwhelming. Trying to place whose it
was, I finally concluded that it must have been Conner's. Rinsing
it out, I pulled a few chunks of things I didn't care to identify
from my hair, grimacing a little as they swirled down the drain
with a gross squelching noise.

My skin was finally starting to look like I wasn't an
extra in a horror movie, so I ignored the nastiness of having
pieces of two guys I knew all over me and investigated the other
soaps and conditioners on the wells inside the stall. Because I'm
picky about scents, I grabbed the same type of conditioner and body
wash. When it was finally all done, I stood under the water for a
few more moments, just letting the shower pelt my skin like a heavy
rain storm. I knew that it wasn't necessary, and I really couldn't
get any cleaner than I already was, but the shower had always been
a place to de-stress for me.

With a reluctant sigh, I shut the shower off and
stood there dripping while water ran down my body in rivulets,
watching steam still rising from me now that my skin was warmer
than the air around me. I wrung the water from my hair, having to
twist it several times before reaching out blindly in the direction
of where I'd seen the towel bar before climbing in. After a few
vain attempts at snagging something to dry off with, a towel jumped
into my grip and my fingers brushed against the cooler flesh of
someone else’s hand.

I froze for a moment, the towel suspended between us.
My heart leapt into my throat as my pulse pounded, ready to beat
the ever loving hell out of someone if I had to. More specifically,
if it was Gavin… Grabbing the curtain with my free hand, I peeked
around the plastic sheet and exhaled loudly with relief. Relief led
to suspicion and mild embarrassment as a pair of amber eyes that
were fast becoming very familiar looked to me curiously.

He held his hands up to show that he wasn’t trying
anything weird, doing his best to be non-threatening. “You’ve been
up here a while. Just wanted to make sure you were okay,” Conner
said, his voice soft with sympathy and a touch of worry.

I narrowed my eyes at him, having noticed something
glittering in his mouth while he was talking, and leaned forward a
bit while pulling the towel behind the curtain. “Stick out your
tongue, would ya?”

He quirked a brow at me, tilting his head to the side
as if I’d grown a second head out of my neck or something equally
strange. “That’s gotta be the weirdest thing I’ve ever had a girl
ask me to do.” Conner said with a little laugh before complying. As
I’d noticed before, he had his tongue pierced. The silver colored
stud sparkled from the overhead light.

I ducked behind the curtain and started drying myself
off, still talking to him. “So, does that mean that silver can’t
actually hurt a werewolf?”

He laughed then, a full throaty laugh that made my
belly fill with a heat I purposely ignored. “Silver does hurt us.
Wounds don’t heal as quickly, if at all, when silver’s involved.
But this bar bell is only sterling silver. It’s an alloy, not just
silver. So, it burns a little, but it’s not full on agony like with
fine silver.” Interesting… And disturbing. But before I could voice
that aloud, he spoke up. “I did tell you I liked pain, didn’t
I?”

It made my eye twitch and I leaned forward to towel
some of the water from my hair so it was only damp and no longer
dripping. I wrapped myself in the towel, securing it with a knot
tucked in under my arm pit. “Indeed you did. And that’s just…” I
stopped talking as I stepped out of the shower and saw him standing
there, lightly bronzed and perfectly sculpted. But it was more the
expression on his face that made me pause. His face was lifted
slightly, as if he was scenting the air. Like he was smelling… Me.
His eyes narrowed a little and I noticed he started breathing as
casually as possible through his mouth rather than his nose, those
slightly canine teeth a bit more apparent than they should have
been.

Finally he covered his nose and mouth with his hand,
seeming to relax a little. “I brought you some of Mina’s clothes to
change in to. Yours are already in the washer. You were up here for
an hour, so I figured I might as well get them cleaned for you. I,
uh…”

It was my turn to be curious. “What’s the matter,
Conner?”

He shook his head. “It’s… It’s the way you smell
right now. Just the scent of you under all the soap that’s mine…
Jesus.” He looked away from me then and walked to the door. “I’m
going to head downstairs. Holler if you need anything. Otherwise,
I’ll see you in a few minutes, okay?”

“Alrighty!” I called after him as he quickly
retreated, the door closing behind him shutting off my reply. I
shrugged it off, not knowing what could have freaked him out like
that. Must have been a guy thing.

I looked at the clothes on the floor before me,
squatting down to inspect them. The jeans would fit easily.
Apparently Elomina and I were the same size in that department. The
top, however… I picked it up and grimaced. The girls were gonna
have a little trouble being comfortable there. And without a bra,
it was so much worse. I pulled the tank top on and noticed that
Conner had been conscientious enough to grab an over shirt for me
as well. A long sleeved black thermal, perfect for this time of
year. It was still snug in all the wrong places, but it covered
enough that I could deal until my clothes were dry.

I combed through the thick wet strands of my hair,
finally weaving all those long black tresses into a braid that came
to a stop just below my rib cage in the back. Looking in the
mirror, I finger combed my bangs so they fell around my face
properly, just to my jaw. Without a flat iron to straighten my
bangs, they were going to curl and wave and do whatever they damn
well pleased, but all things considered…. Having curly bangs wasn’t
very high on my list of life threatening things that needed to be
addressed at the moment. I hung the towel back up and flipped the
light off on my way out of the bathroom, going back downstairs to
join the rest of the gang.

Seven pairs of eyes fell on me as I came into the
living room and I looked to Elomina, seeing that Jimmy was awake
and not knowing what I should say. She nodded at me and I shrugged,
feeling what she was trying to tell me without either of us needing
words to convey it. I'd been gone long enough, so Jynxx must have
decided to fill Jimmy in on what was going on. What was happening,
and what he may end up having to worry about becoming sometime in
the near future. One less thing for my already stressed brain to
have to worry about, I suppose. And Jimmy seemed horribly Zen about
the whole thing, besides.

I sat down on the couch between Jynxx and Conner,
since it was the only available space other than the floor. And
although the carpet was fairly comfy, I was much more tired
physically than I was expecting from the mental strain I'd put
myself through. Forcing the both of them to shift had kicked my
ass, and I was absolutely starving like I'd just been in a
triathlon and come out in the top five.

Conner seemed to share my sentiment, saying aloud. "I
am sooooo hungry! I could eat a horse."

"Ewww! Horse meat is so... gamey." Kenshin shot back,
making a disgusted face.

Conner stuck his tongue out at the blond young man
and I couldn't resist a smirk at the way they all bantered with
each other. You could tell that they were close, and the connection
between the five of them ran very deep. It seemed that it went even
farther than just lifelong friendship. Their blood and natures
called to each other on an almost cellular level, and apparently I
was now a part of that same calling.

I wasn't sure how to deal with that. I was fairly
accepting of the fact that a lot of things happened in this world
that were out of the ordinary, things most people wouldn't even
acknowledge existed. No one wanted to know that the monsters under
the bed and in the closet were real. And if they did know, they
wanted to forget and would go to great lengths -including denying
concrete evidence right in front of them- to do so. I wasn't one of
those people. I wanted to be, sorely, because ignorance is bliss.
When people don't know how scary and awful the world truly is, they
can go on their merry little ways and never have a doubt or a fear.
I preferred the harshness of reality to some drug or therapy
induced mental wall that cloistered me from the truth.

"If you're so hungry, why not go make yourself
something to eat?" Gavin put in, a touch of a growl under his
words.

Conner tensed beside me and made a move to get up,
although whether to kick Gavin's ass or get some food, I was
unsure. I touched my hand to the back of his and he seemed to calm
almost instantly, settling back onto the couch and leaning more
towards me than was probably proper. "I feel like I shouldn't have
to be the house bitch for once, seeing as how teaching our Kongen
the ways of shifting is a responsibility that I undertook when it
should have fallen to the beta." Conner's eyes narrowed as he and
Gavin seemed to face off on a mental level, their looks at each
other nasty enough that someone should have been bleeding from the
daggers they were glaring at each other by now.

Something he'd said caught my attention. "Beta? You
mean Gavin's the second in command?"

Conner nodded, still not breaking the stare down
between them. Must have been a male dominance thing.

"Teigan's the gamma, Kenshin's the delta, and I'm at
the bottom of the pack. I don't give a shit about what my rank is.
I stand up and do what needs to be done when it needs to be,
whether it's in my job description or not."

Interesting. With his general take charge attitude, I
would have thought Conner to be a bit farther up the political
ladder than at the bottom of it. And the others listened to him,
for the most part. Gavin seemed like the most difficult one of the
group. But his propensity for being a dick was probably the reason
he was second in command.

Meaning, he'd been the one taking care of things
before Jynxx had awakened. He'd probably been hoping that Jynxx
would never become fully aware of who and what he was, then the
seat of power would belong solely to Gavin.

"So... Was this part of what you meant when you were
talking about dissension in the ranks, Teigan?" I asked, fascinated
with the concept of pack dynamics and politics. I'd always been
into wolves anyway, from a research perspective. They were noble,
beautiful, wild, free, and they mated for life. Honestly, what was
there not to like? Granted, werewolves were a bit different from
actual wolves, from throwing in the whole human personality factor,
but they had a lot of things in common between the two species,
from what I had gathered already.

"Partially, Kacea. We've had more than our fair share
of in-fighting over who was to have which seat of power, from a
mere pack perspective. That pack being just the five of us. The
Clan comprises a much larger number of people, and they've all had
some... issues with Gavin being in charge. He can be a hot head,
and tends to rub people the wrong way, but aside from that he has
been a fair enough leader in Jynxx's stead."

I nodded, not sure how I felt about someone saying
that Gavin was a "fair" leader. Fair could mean he was awesome, or
it could mean he was just this side of sucking terribly. But
judging from his attitude towards Conner, I was pretty sure the
"house bitch" would say that his leadership left something to be
desired.

"So, now that we've established a bit of order and
everyone knows where they fall from a structural stand point...
Who's up for ordering a pizza rather than cooking tonight?" Teigan
put in with that smooth and cultured voice, his words seeming to
cool a bit of the unnatural heat radiating through the air that
felt thick enough to choke on from the tension between Gavin and
Conner.

That idea was phenomenal. Everyone pitched in a few
dollars and half an hour later, a boy who looked very familiar to
me brought five large pizzas to the door. It took me a minute to
recognize him without his heavy makeup on, but I realized that it
was Feign, the guy who'd been at the door taking money at the show
not too long ago. The uniform made him look adorable, but I didn't
comment on it.

Conner came around behind me, his body precariously
close to mine when he leaned out to greet their friend. "Hey,
Feign! How goes it today?" He handed the orange haired boy thirty
dollars and told him to keep the change.

Feign shrugged, adjusting the ridiculous baseball cap
that covered his pretty hair. "Been better, man. Today's sucked for
tips. But tomorrow will be better. All the old ladies in town have
a big bridge tournament on Sundays." He added the last bit with a
grin that flashed a touch of doggy fangs that made me lean back a
little without realizing it. It pressed me flat against Conner's
chest and probably totally gave the guy in front of us the wrong
impression. Oh, well. There would be time to correct social
mishaps, of which I was the Queen, later.