Night Hungers (2 page)

“You have tattoos on your back and arms. They’re very detailed and...well, they’re very unusual. Not just for a woman, but unusual for tats. Do they have anything to do with what you are?”

Instead of answering him she stood up, pulled her t-shirt up over her back, and turned her back to them. With her shirt over her shoulders, he and Russell could see the sword in a scabbard tattooed in the center of her back along her spine.

The detail was exquisite, the colors brilliant and bright. The scabbard reached from her scapulas to the bottom of her spine at about twelve inches and was at the widest place about six inches. It was bejeweled with what appeared to be gemstones and diamonds.

The handle of the sword was covered in a cuff that was intricate and practical.

“Could you pick up Lovely? When I show you this she will be scared. The force of energy when I do this is a bit...well, it’s a bit overwhelming.”

Russell picked up his cat and held her to his chest. Danny wished he had something to hold too. Because when Zane reached back with her left hand and touched the handle of the blade, it peeled from her skin and filled her hand. As they watched the blade pulled from the scabbard and became as real as the silverware on the table. And when she turned with the blade in her hand, he knew what color her eyes were. They were black, black as sin.

~CHAPTER 2~

Zane laid her sword on the table in front of the two men. Neither of them said a word, but she could feel their fear and their confusion. Maybe she should have told them what was going to happen before she showed them, but she didn’t think they’d believe her.

The sword was just as it looked on her back. The cuff was made of silver and curved around her hand perfectly. It would never fit another person’s hand, as she was the only one who could remove it from her back. And if she was injured and rendered unconscious it would return to her back and look for all anyone could tell as a simple tat.

“I don’t want you two to freak out on me. If you think you can handle any more, or even if you want any more, I can tell you. I trust you not to tell anyone.”

It seemed to take a great deal of effort for them to tear their eyes away from the blade lying on the table. Danny looked at her first. His eyes were full of questions and she was sure his mind, if she looked, would be close to overloaded.

“There’s more? Holy pod puckers, Zane. I thought you’d...I just wanted to know about the tat. I didn’t...I never thought that...mother flower pots, that’s messed up. Give me a minute.”

Zane stood, picked up the blade, and returned it to her back. She was walking to the door when Danny jumped up. She didn’t even slow her stride. She needed to get out of there now.

“Zane, please don’t—”

“It’s all right, Danny. I understand completely. I have to go anyway. There are some things I have to do before tomorrow. I’ll see you at the shop then?”

If she was out of work she’d simply move on. She’d done it before and she had no doubt that she’d have to do it again and again. This was the first time she’d ever shown anyone what she could do and she thought it would more than likely be the last.

“Of course. Zane, I’m sorry. It was just...it was just a shock. Russell and I knew that you were different, but we never dreamed that you were anything, that you could do anything like we just witnessed.”

“I’ll see you. Good night then. And tell Russell that I said dinner was great. I’ll see you tomorrow, Danny.”

She moved to the end of his lot and shifted. She needed a good, hard run and figured that she’d sneak onto the pack property, again, that the wolves ran on. She’d see if she could find a few of them out running. Weres were not very tolerant of shifters in general, but they had never figured she was anything but a stray wolf, she thought. It took her twenty minutes to navigate through the street and keep out of sight, and another ten to find a group of four young pups to run with. She was just getting back to her lair when the sun was coming up. After a short nap of an hour she was headed back to the garage to pull an engine.

At noon she was buried deep under the hood of an SUV that the owner had never had serviced when Danny came back. He had talked to her off and on all morning, but neither of them had mentioned last night. She didn’t like it and figured if things between them didn’t improve by the next week she would move on. She liked Danny too much to make him this uncomfortable.

“Do you think you can look at another SUV for me? This guy is a good friend and he claims that it’s making a strange noise. Duncan is very...well, very proper, but one of the nicest, if not strangest, men you’ll ever meet. You’ll like him.”

“Sure. This one is going to need a whole new engine. It’s seized up from lack of oil.

Why would someone pay this much for one of these suckers and not keep it up? Damned shame. You can bring Duncan through here and I’ll roll this oversized paperweight out to the back. I’ll have the estimate done on it when I look at this car.”

Danny nodded and moved back to the front. Zane opened the back bay doors, put the piece of crap into neutral, and gave it a small push to get it rolling. If she were the owner she’d just let it keep rolling until it was out of sight. When it came to a stop at the very edge of the lot she put it back into park and closed and locked it up. The guy was going to be pissed about it being out in the sun, but at this point it didn’t matter.

The dark green SUV was being rolled into the bay slot just as Zane was coming back through the main door. The little man behind the wheel looked to be both nervous and terrified at the same time. Zane looked behind her to see if something came in behind her.

When he got out and walked around the vehicle she realized he had been afraid of hitting something in the garage.

“Duncan, this is Allison Zander; Zane, this is Duncan. He works at the MacManus household as the man of everything. Duncan, why don’t you tell Zane what you told me that your car is doing.”

“It is pulling very hard to the left. When I try to keep it straight it makes a funny screeching noise. Not unlike Miss Lizzy does when she is told that she must retire for the evening. I do hope that it is easy to fix. I must pick up the children at their school at precisely two-fifteen.”

Zane glanced at Danny.
Seriously?
Shrugging to herself, Zane asked him for the keys. When he handed them to her she hopped into the car and started it up.

“I’ll need to take it for a spin. I should be back in about ten minutes. I promise nothing will happen to it.”

When he looked at Danny then back at her and nodded, Zane pulled the door shut and backed out. She thought it was just out of alignment, but wanted to be sure it was nothing more. Turning left out of the lot, she drove down to the first stop sign then turned in the empty bar lot down the street and headed back. Yeah, it was out of alignment.

When she got back to the garage Duncan was on his cell phone so she pulled the car up onto the lifts and began to raise it up. When he walked over to her with his phone still out she looked at him.

“Her ladyship would like a word with you, if you please. She is most concerned about the children, you see, and if I will be able to pick them up. I have told her your name.”

Zane took the proffered cell phone and put it to her ear as the car came to a rest just above her head. She walked under the vehicle just as she answered the phone. It was noisy in the garage so she had to ask “her ladyship” twice to repeat what she said.

“I said that if Duncan needs to have a ride back home I can pick him up after I get the kids from school. Don’t you have an office or something that isn’t quite so noisy? I know Danny very well and I’m sure that he wouldn’t mind you using it to talk to customers.”

“That would defeat the point of
him
having an office if everyone could just use it whenever the mood struck, don’t you think? I’ll need to do an alignment on this and I should have it ready by seven. You’ll have to talk to Danny about picking it up after hours. When he leaves, he locks up and I don’t do the business part of helping him.”

“I’ll talk to him. If you wouldn’t mind telling Duncan that I’ll pick him up around three I’d appreciate it. Also, if you could have Danny call me, that would be very helpful.”

Zane wanted to tell her that she wasn’t the frigging secretary, that she could call Danny herself, but she just said sure and hung up. Zane was pulling the air gun over just as Duncan wandered over to her and stood behind her. She didn’t mind so much him watching, it was how intently he did so. Like there was going to be a test at the end and he needed to make a good grade. When she had to move him twice to finish taking off the tire Duncan sat down at the work bench. Thirty minutes into the job he asked her a question.

“I was wondering, Miss Zander, if you could tell me who this book belongs to. I was not even aware that you could find
King Lear
in Latin. I would love to borrow it sometime if I could ask the owner.”

Zane glanced over at the book in question. It was hers and she had nearly finished it.

She didn’t own any books. This one she had just picked up at a used bookstore in the Short North a few days ago. One of the many things that Zane could do was memorize things and, once read, she didn’t need to re-read it to know what each page had on it.

“I should have it finished tomorrow. If you really want it I’ll leave it in your vehicle when you pick it up. I just finished Poe’s
The Raven
in Latin if you want it. You should be able to find it in the second drawer of that cabinet by your leg.”

“Splendid! I shall read this one then and return it to you posthaste. If you could tell me what price you paid for this I will gladly pay you for its usage. I cannot find books in this language in the local library and will find this to be a very nice treat for me.”

Zane put her tool cart closer to her and continued to work while she talked to the man. Switching to Latin she began talking to him about the few books she had read over the past several months and where she had found them. The time flew by both because she was busy and because she was really enjoying the conversation and the man. Soon Danny was yelling to the back that Duncan’s ride was here.

“Thank you for the book, Miss Zander. I will enjoy reading it and think of you when I do so. I look forward to continuing our conversation at some later date perhaps.”

“Sure, and it’s just Zane. Not Miss anything. I’ll leave
Lear
in the car for you. Like I said, pass it on if you want or sell it in a garage sale. And thank you for an enjoyable afternoon.”

At seven-thirty Zane was just finishing up tightening the bolts on the SUV. She was tired, having not gotten a great deal of sleep the night before, and ready to lie down.

Moving toward the door, her pager went off. Not even bothering to look at the display, she went to the payphone just outside of Danny’s office and called the number she knew by heart.

“I have a job for you. There’s a rogue werewolf outside of Cincinnati that needs to be destroyed. Can you do it for us by the weekend? The job is sanctioned.”

Zane had never met the voice at the other end. She didn’t really care who it was so long as they continued to pay her well and keep her secret. She was sure the man was in an office somewhere sitting his huge, fat butt behind a desk and waiting for someone to screw up so that she could go out and clean up. Working for this person had kept her from putting a bullet to her head, not that it would do any more than make her weak.

“Yeah. I can do it. I’ll pick the stuff up tonight if that’s okay. I have to be somewhere in the morning, but I can have it done by late tomorrow night.”

“Good. I will make sure that everything you need is there. Box number twelve. Good night, Mac.”

It took Zane less than a minute to shift and to arrive at the little apartment building on Tenth Avenue. She pulled the large envelope out of mailbox twelve marked with her cover name
Mechanic
on it
.
Stuffing it under her t-shirt and next to her skin, Zane shifted and left the area. It wasn’t until she was in her lair that she opened it. Reading the information and then burning the envelope’s contents, she lay down and promptly fell asleep.

~~~

“So how long can you stay? I’m hoping you’ll say forever, but I guess that’s too much to hope for. I miss my baby brother.”

Aiden St. James just smiled. He did want to stay in the United States. France had become rather stale without Tristan there to have fun with and Aiden and his other two brothers had nothing in common any more. Finding their mates had made them sort of boring, Aiden thought.

“Baby brother? Trist, I’m nearly six hundred years old. Don’t you think it’s about time you dropped the baby crap? And where is my favorite niece? Surely this vision can’t be her.”

Emma came running at him full tilt. She really was a vision, too. Blond curly hair, fair skin—she was going to be a killer when she got a little older. He couldn’t wait to watch Tristan try and deal with her dating. Scooping the little girl up in his arms, Aiden leaned down and kissed his sister-in-law Bailey on the cheek. A low growl from Tristan made him laugh.

“Oh behave, you overgrown baby. It’s your brother. If anyone is allowed to kiss my cheek, it’s him. How are you, Aiden? Did he even ask you to sit down before he started browbeating you into moving here?”

“No. He barely let me take my shoes off before he started hounding me about it. I swear, Bailey, how you put up with him is beyond me. Maybe you and Miss Emma here should come and stay with me. I’m sure I could make you very happy.”

Bailey laughed when Aiden wiggled his brows at her. Another growl from Tristan had them both roaring with laughter. As they moved to the living room out of the main hall Aiden talked to Emma.

“I brought you some things from your Grandma and Grandpa St. James. They also told me to tell you that they’ll be here next month and that you were to make a list of things you’d like to show them when they visit. I thought I was going to be bringing them this time, but something came up at the office at the last minute so they had to stay.”