Chapter 19

Ruby hopped down from the truck before Rafe could do something absurd like open her door and help her out. He gave her a bemused smile as they walked across the parking lot to the front door of the apartment building. It was an old gray building clearly designed for function over beauty. It seemed to be surviving the years but doing nothing for the aesthetic of the neighborhood. The rest of the street was filled with even older Victorian houses that had been split up into apartments for the local college students years ago.

The sun was already high in the sky and the black top radiated heat right back up at them. A bead of sweat rolled down Ruby’s back.

She’d promised herself she was done throwing herself at Rafe, but that one little kiss seemed necessary. Rafe looked positively homicidal at the thought of her lusting after his brother. She couldn’t pretend she didn’t sort of like it. A lot. Anyway, the kiss had been purely to make sure he didn’t drive them into a tree. It had nothing to do with the way his stubble was scratchy beneath her lips or the small intake of breath he’d made when she did it. It had nothing to do with the fact that even now when she’d renewed her vow to respect his wishes her body still screamed at her to get closer.

Rafe opened the door to the old building, an eyebrow raised in question. “You okay?” he asked with an infuriating smirk. God, must her every lusty thought always be written on her face?

“So who are we visiting?” she asked, ignoring his question. “This building doesn’t seem terribly werewolf-y.” She wrinkled her nose at the musty smell of the lobby. Silver mailboxes lined one wall and the maroon carpet had seen better days. There was no elevator so they began the climb while Rafe explained.

“Callie might have some insight. She lives here with her boyfriend.”

Callie? The girl from the bar? Ruby was more intrigued than ever about how that sweet little blonde girl and her even sweeter boyfriend could have anything to do with werewolf attacks and ancient seer abilities. But she didn’t have time to ask any more questions before Rafe had stopped at the second landing and strode down the short hallway to the apartment at the end. Ruby hurried to catch up, her boots stomping loudly in the tight space.

Sawyer opened the door wide, an easy smile on his face. “Hey, guys, come in.”

“Thanks.” Rafe clapped him on the shoulder and Sawyer winced a little before grinning at Ruby.

“Nice to see you outside of the bar,” he said and Ruby returned the smile.

“It’s nice to be outside of the bar.”

Sawyer laughed and gestured for her to come inside. The door opened into the living room where Callie was already perched on the couch, laptop in her lap.

“Hi, Rafe,” she said, glancing up. “Hi, Ruby.”

“Finals are this week,” Sawyer said with a shrug. “She’ll be done in a minute.”

Rafe shifted on his feet. He looked like an enormous storm cloud in the middle of the bright apartment. Ruby bit down a smile.

Despite the dreary exterior, Callie and Sawyer’s apartment was as colorful as its occupants. Patterned blankets were draped over the couch and chair, a braided rug covered the worn floor, and plants filled the windows.

“You guys want something to drink?” Sawyer asked. “I guess it’s kinda early for a beer. Coffee?”

Rafe gave a curt nod in agreement and Sawyer grinned again like he really got a kick out of Rafe’s gruff, silent type.

“How about you, Ruby?”

“Coffee is good. Thanks.” It was possible Ruby was just as bad at human interaction as Rafe was, but she was more likely to get an odd look than make the other person run away in terror. Sawyer nodded and disappeared down a small hallway off the living room.

Callie slammed her computer shut and finally looked around the room, blinking like she’d just woken up.

“Hey. Sorry about that. I was kind of in the zone.” She smiled, her long blonde braid sliding over one shoulder. “Please, sit down!”

Rafe took the only chair, one that looked older than Ruby, so she folded herself up on the other end of the couch. Awkwardness crawled over her skin. Should she have taken off her boots before she came in? She thought they were going to be questioning more silent wolfy types, not chatting with a sunny co-ed.

Ruby could fake chattiness at the bar. Anything for tips. And for whatever reason, Rafe’s stoic growliness set her completely at ease. But put her in a room with peers and tell her to make small talk and Ruby was at a loss. Friends had never been her thing. Ruby played with ghosts and monsters, not other little girls.

Callie smiled and Ruby could have sworn the clouds parted from the sun outside the window. “So, what’s going on?”

Rafe cleared his throat. “Ruby was attacked.”

Callie’s eyes widened. “By wolves?”

Rafe nodded. “No one I know. But they’re still sniffing around. Have you heard anything?”

“You know I’m new to all of this.” She shook her head. “But no, I haven’t heard anything.”

“What do you mean new?” Ruby asked.

Callie smiled at her, tossing her braid to the other side. Sawyer returned and handed Ruby and Rafe their coffee before settling on the floor at Callie’s feet.

“She’s a witch,” he said with a grin and Callie kicked him playfully in the shoulder.

“I have certain atmospheric-related powers,” she clarified.

“She can control the weather,” Sawyer added, clearly delighted by this whole situation.

“Sometimes, sort of. Anyway, it’s only been a year or so since I really figured it all out.”

“Uh-huh.” Ruby nodded. The day started with a nymph and now we’re throwing a witch into the mix. Because why the hell not.

“I was hoping we could talk to your grandmother about something.” Rafe leaned forward, resting his forearms on his knees, his eyes flashing with intensity.

“She’s still in Arizona. I doubt she would have heard anything about wolf attacks out here.”

“It’s about something else.” Rafe glanced at Ruby as though asking for permission to go on. She gave him a small nod. “We think Ruby’s sister might be a seer.”

“She has visions?” Callie’s eyebrows rose to her hairline. “My grandmother told me seers are rare.”

“Very,” Rafe said. “Haven’t heard of one around here in decades.”

“She needs help,” Ruby cut in, shifting her weight on the cushions. “My sister, I mean. The visions are… They seem to be hurting her.”

Callie’s brow scrunched in concern. “Let’s see what we can do.”

Thirty minutes and several cups of coffee later, Callie’s grandmother appeared on the screen in front of them.

Ruby and Rafe sat on either side of Callie now, the laptop on the coffee table in front of them.

“Grandma, can you hear us?”

“Oh, there you are, sweets! I see your beautiful face!” The old woman leaned toward the computer and her cheerful face filled the screen.

Callie smiled. “Lean back a bit. Okay, that’s better.”

“How are you? Do you have friends over? Don’t tell me you replaced Sawyer with that big fellow there.”

Rafe grumbled and Ruby swallowed her laugh.

“No, no. This is Rafe. You know each other.”

The old woman squinted, peering through the screen at Rafe. Her eyes widened in recognition. “Devon’s son? You look just like him!”

Rafe choked on his coffee.

“You haven’t aged a bit,” Callie’s grandma went on, ignoring Rafe’s reaction. “Gosh, I do envy those werewolf genes. How long has it been?”

“Must be close to fifty years. How are you, Eloise?”

Ruby watched the blush creep up Callie’s grandmother’s cheeks at the sound of her name rumbling off Rafe’s tongue. Well, at least she wasn’t the only one.

“Oh, I’ve been all right, but somehow I feel like this isn’t just a social call.”

Rafe cleared his throat. “We’re hoping you can help or at least give us some insight.”

“I’ll do my best. Lay it on me.”

Ruby smiled. She liked this woman.

“I left the pack a while ago,” Rafe started.

“Oh?” Eloise’s eyebrows rose. “I heard your father passed.”

Rafe grumbled in the affirmative.

“I figured you’d be the next Alpha, but I take it that’s not what happened.”

“Knox took the position.”

“Hm.” Eloise looked like she wanted to say more but Rafe pushed ahead, clearly not wanting to talk about his brother or the pack. Ruby was itching to know what happened between them but now wasn’t the time to press him.

“The point is, I’m not with the pack anymore, but lately Ruby’s been followed by a few strange wolves and one attacked her.”

“A werewolf attack? What is the world coming to? Or going back to?” She waved a hand in front of her. “Not good either way.” The old woman shook her head and gray wisps fell from her braid.

“Right. I’m trying to figure out who it might be and what they want with Ruby.” Chills ran up Ruby’s spine. Hearing her current situation laid out for someone else made the whole thing more real. Maybe Rafe was right. Maybe she hadn’t been taking this whole thing seriously enough.

Wolves. Blood. You’re not safe.Lena’s last words rang through her mind and panic seized her throat. Rafe leaned forward, body tense as though he could feel Ruby’s fear.

“Her sister is having visions. Ones about wolves and blood, but she can’t hold on to them. Can’t tell us more than a few words.”

Callie let out a small gasp. Fear tightened in Ruby’s gut. Wolves. Blood. This wasn’t her morbid imagination or one of Aunt Millie’s special breed of bedtime stories or some decades-old dream. Her life was in danger. It was what Rafe had been trying to tell her all along, but for some reason it didn’t sink in until she’d heard Callie’s own gasp of fear and saw Eloise’s solemn face through the screen. She was in actual danger.

“Do you know anything about seers? Any way we can help her?” Rafe paused, sucking in a breath. “The visions seem to be hurting her. She’s weakening.”

The old woman’s brow was knitted in concern. “It’s been a long time since I’ve heard of anything like this,” she said after a moment. “My grandmother used to speak of them, how they were hunted and often killed for their knowledge. Or captured. A powerful seer could be a valuable asset.”

Ruby’s heart squeezed so tight she nearly yelped in pain.

Callie put a hand on her knee and left it there, the warm weight of it helping to ease the panic just enough so that Ruby could breathe.

“Hold on a minute,” Eloise said. “Let me see what I can find on the subject.” She stood and shuffled off screen.

Sawyer blew out a long breath from across the room. “Holy shit. You okay, Ruby?”

Ruby offered him a weak smile. “Yeah, I’m okay.”

Rafe grumbled softly, his intense gaze on the screen, waiting for Eloise to return. Callie’s hand was still on Ruby’s leg and she gave it a light squeeze.

“We’ll figure something out. Don’t worry.” But even as she said it, rain pelted the window and a rumble of thunder echoed in the distance. “Ignore that,” she said with an apologetic smile.

A soft brush of fur ran across Ruby’s calves and she looked down to find a gray cat staring up at her with amber eyes. She reached down and scratched between its ears. The cat purred in response.

“Oh, that’s Iggy. He likes you,” Callie said with a smile.

Ruby let the little cat’s purr vibrate through her fingers, focusing on that instead of her racing heart. She hadn’t seen her own cat in days, she realized now. He must be hiding from their new house guest or hanging out in Lena’s room away from the giant wolf that had taken up residence in Ruby’s.

Iggy weaved in and out of her legs before settling on top of her boots.

“He used to breathe fire,” Sawyer said with a grin.

Ruby’s gaze shot to his, but she didn’t get to ask any questions before Eloise appeared back on the screen. She set a stack of books on the table with a thud.

“Now, let’s see what we’ve got,” she said with grim determination and opened the first one.

* * *

The ride home was quiet, both of them processing everything they had discussed with Eloise. She’d given them exercises Lena could try to still her mind and access her visions as well some history she’d found about this power. But none of it would help if they didn’t actually tell Lena what was going on. That was something they could argue about tomorrow.

Rafe pulled the truck in front of the tiny bungalow. Ruby didn’t budge when he turned off the engine. She just sat, staring straight ahead. She’d been afraid today. Truly afraid. He could smell it on her, the panic and the terror. The scent mimicked the one she’d been bathed in when the wolf lunged for her.

It was what he’d wanted all along. For her to take this threat seriously, but that smell, that knowledge that she was scared tore him apart.

“Should we go in?” he asked, his voice gruff even when he didn’t want it to be.

Ruby turned to look at him. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.

“Sorry? For what?”

“For not taking this seriously. For fighting you every step of the way. For…” Her cheeks lit up pink in the dim interior of the truck. “For being too distracted by my attraction to you to think about anything else.” She picked at the hem of her skirt, not meeting his eye, and he wanted to haul her into his lap and show her just how distracted he was by her.

He took her chin between his fingers and tilted her head up. “You have nothing to be sorry about.” His voice was husky, practically dripping with the need he felt for this woman. “None of this is your fault.”

Ruby gave a small nod against his fingertips but she didn’t look convinced.

“Maybe we just need to get it out of our system.” The words were out of his mouth before he could think better of it. Ruby’s eyes widened, her cheeks flushing darker pink. Rafe barreled forward, flinging himself off the cliff of terrible ideas. “This thing between us, it is a distraction. So, maybe we just need to…”

He swallowed hard, losing his nerve.

But Ruby was brave. “Yes.” She breathed the word into the space between them. “Yes, that makes sense. We just need to get it out of our system. Then we’ll be able to focus on helping Lena and figuring this all out.” She gave him a small smile, those red lips curving up, beckoning him.

He moved his hand from her chin to the side of her face, cupping her jaw, allowing his fingers to burrow into her hair. Soft. So fucking soft. She leaned closer, close enough to taste. And he could have her. Just this once. Just to get rid of this need that wouldn’t stop clawing at his insides, demanding to be released.

“Wait. Theo.”

Nothing could douse the flames of Rafe’s arousal faster than hearing his brother’s name from Ruby’s lips.

She shook her head, the small smile still playing around her mouth. “I mean, Theo is still here. Shouldn’t we send him home before we… I mean we’re in his truck.”

Rafe blinked, remembering his surroundings for the first time since turning to face Ruby. Right. He absolutely under no circumstances would be fucking Ruby in Theo’s truck. The late evening sun shone through the front windshield reminding him of another unfortunate detail.

“You have to be at work soon.”

It was Ruby’s turn to look startled back into reality. She slumped in her seat. “I forgot.” Those perfect blood red lips turned down at the corner and Rafe couldn’t stand it.

“Later, then.”

Ruby’s gaze slid toward him, full of promise. “Okay. It’s a deal. Later. To get it out of our systems.”

Rafe nodded. Yes, this made sense. Ruby never said she wanted some big love affair with him. He’d only jumped to that conclusion because of his history with Scarlet. This thing was purely physical and tonight they would take care of it like two consenting adults. Human adults. He could be human for one night. He’d done it before for far longer even if it had ended in disaster.

Tonight wouldn’t be like that. Tonight would be him and Ruby working out this thing between them…

Ruby cleared her throat, pulling Rafe back to the present. “I should probably check on Lena.”

“Of course.”

She popped open her door and jumped out of the cab while Rafe frantically thought about everything from his idiot brother to roadkill to get his dick to calm down. The last thing he needed was to prove Theo right.

With a sigh, he hopped down from the truck. It was going to be a long shift.