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First Geoff and now this one, she thought with a sigh. It must be the full
moon. "Real sweet, with cream. Thanks."
He nodded. "Don't have milk, but can make it real sweet."
She didn't say a word; he didn't move off the top step. Just stared. For a
second she wasn't sure she was breathing. Was he about to attack?
"Hey, I'm sorry. Full moon aftermath," he finally said, and disappeared into
the building again and then reappeared with her coffee mug in one hand, his
green-tea-filled mug in another. "Last night, the whole pack had to respond to
a call to arms." He set her cup down on the steps and backed away so she could
pick it up. When she just stared at it, he let out a weary breath. "Well, if
you think I drugged it, then why would you let me go to all the trouble of
making it?"
"I didn't think about that until just now. Sorry."
She glanced at the mug and allowed it to remain where he'd left it and just
continued to lean against the wall. What did he and his pack having to respond
to a call to arms have to do with her? He was speaking to her as if she knew
what he was talking about. Having another entity within the same hour messing
with her head annoyed her no end. Beyond that, the fact that werewolves were
organized into packs and not lone rogues who occasionally ventured out to
snack on a human was blowing her mind. Dangerous or not, she needed to gather
more data from him.
He picked up her mug and took a sip from it and then put it where he'd left
it, then bounded up the steps to sit yogi style on the landing. "I guess now
you don't want it because I have werewolf germs, huh?" He took a slow sip of
his green tea, eyeing her over the rim of his mug.
What could she say? Werewolf cooties were on her list of things she didn't
need in her life; besides, that's why she was taking meds she already had
them.
"I just don't get it," she said, ignoring this comment "You say you're a
werewolf, but you're "
"Not slobbering on myself and pulling out people's entrails?" He shook his
head. "Don't ever believe vampires. Snobs, the lot of them."
"All I know is, thirty years ago a war between super-naturals broke out in
rural Colombia "
"Those were demon-infected werewolves that your military encountered," he said
sharply, cutting her off. "The vampires try to act like their kind hasn't had
rogues& What the hell was Jack the Ripper other than one of them gone insane?"
Sasha felt as if a boulder had fallen on her head. She blinked furiously and
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said, "What?"
He just stared at her for a moment, incredulous. "You really don't know, do
you? You don't know the politics behind the war, either, do you?"
She shook her head, dazed. "Uh, no."
"The demon betrayal is a long story, one that children are told growing up.
Your parents never explained?"
Sasha shook her head again. "I never knew them," she said. "They died when I
was young."
Compassion filled his serene gaze and she prayed it wasn't pity. She had grown
up during the second half of her childhood with Doc's housekeeper as the
closest thing to a mother, though the woman was dear and loving. But she
hadn't felt that vacancy in her soul in years and wondered why looking into
Shogun's understanding gaze made her feel it again as if it were yesterday.
"I'm sorry," he finally said in his low-key, dignified manner.
Sasha shrugged. "I got a good deal, raised by the man who found me& He was
pretty well-off, even had a housekeeper who watched out for me."
"Then I really am sorry," Shogun said, his voice now nearly a murmur as his
gaze coated her with empathy. "To be raised by humans& " He shook his head and
looked down into his tea for a moment and then released a long sigh. "The pack
is everything, family is everything. To be raised without one's history and
native language is incomprehensible." When his gaze captured hers again, she
was rendered temporarily mute.
"I did okay," she said after a while.
"But we teach our children the history of the packs from as far back as "
"Hold it." She pushed off the wall. "Kids?"
He smiled as he took a liberal sip of tea and she could feel him baiting her
mind, but she didn't care.
"Yes, Sasha& I heard the fanged one call you that. May I?"
"Yeah, sure, but get back to the kids part."
"We're alive, Sasha. The vampires aren't. We reproduce like any other species;
they don't. They build their numbers through the bite and death. That's why we
despise them, and they're viciously jealous of us."
"That's& wild." She moved closer to the steps but still wasn't ready to take a
sip of coffee after he'd drunk from the mug, even though it smelled divine. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]