Читать книгу Sexy Beast VI - Lydia Parks - Страница 9

Jazzy shook her head to clear the weird sensation of having done way too many drugs, something she’d actually avoided most of her life. Her ears buzzed, her body trembled. She looked around and saw Beth coming back from the garden. Jazzy held out her hand. Beth grabbed it and pulled her to her feet.

Beth had Nicky’s pants and boots under her arm. She kept her eyes away from Nicky, and Jazzy wondered if she’d ever seen him naked before now. Even unconscious, curled like a child in the big man’s arms, he was surprisingly well built. She’d never have expected a package like that on such a quiet guy like him. She looked closer, but didn’t see the studs she’d heard about. His penis lay nestled in its bed of dark, curling hair, unadorned and flaccid.

Jazzy’s skin went hot and cold and hot again. She knew she was blushing. Why was she even looking? Now certainly wasn’t the time. But her body was still aroused in spite of her fear, and her clit rode stiffly against her jeans. This was all just too weird.

Beth glanced back at the garden where Nicky had changed. Where all their lives had changed. “Shouldn’t we get the rest of Nicky’s stuff?”

“Yeah. He’ll want it.” Jazzy looked at the tiny woman beside the two men, and then she made eye contact with the one carrying Nicky as if he weighed nothing at all. “Be careful with our friend.”

The man, an oversized vision of Hispanic and Native American male perfection, merely nodded. He carefully stepped over the bloody and torn clothing and disappeared into the bushes with Nicky’s limp body in his arms.

Jazzy grabbed the rest of Nicky’s torn and tangled clothing and Beth found a bunch of the studs and rings that had somehow fallen from his pierced flesh. Jazzy straightened up and glanced at the strange woman, who was looking more impatient by the second.

“Okay. I’ve got everything. I sure hope you can explain what happened.” Jazzy hadn’t meant to sound so confrontational. These people were here to help them, for whatever reason.

Logan grabbed her elbow, as if he were escorting her to the Oscars instead of the big SUV parked on the other side of a copse of bushes and flowering plants. He didn’t say a word, but Jazzy soaked up the sense of his strength and took some comfort in his closeness.

Her head buzzed again, like the sound of bees inside her skull. Nerves. Must be a delayed reaction to what she’d seen. She glanced back, once, at the mangled body lying near the garden. Then she looked up at Logan. His jaw was set, his eyes narrowed. He’d looked so different when he was checking out the guy on the ground. Like he knew exactly what he was doing. Sort of like a doctor examining a sick person.

“What were you doing with that guy…the dead guy?”

Logan’s head jerked around and his fingers tightened on her elbow. “What do you mean? I didn’t do anything.”

“You were touching his neck and checking his injuries. You looked like a doctor.”

“Someone had to check and see if he was still alive. No one seems to care that a guy’s lying dead on the ground back there.”

Jazzy frowned. “We all care, Logan. But maybe we care more about Nicky than some fucking punk who tried to molest a woman in the park. Sorry, but he doesn’t get any sympathy from me.”

“Pretty heavy price to pay for coppin’ a feel.”

“Not heavy enough, as far as I’m concerned.” She tugged her arm free of Logan’s grasp. The dead guy deserved what he got and then some. She’d had more than her share of punks trying to cop a feel and way too many had succeeded and gotten away with it.

Sirens screamed in the distance. “Sounds like they’re getting closer,” she said, to no one in particular.

“Hurry.” The woman held the doors open on the SUV. She seemed surprisingly calm, considering the circumstances. The big guy had Nicky laid out in the backseat. He threw a towel over Nicky’s midsection to cover up his nakedness while the rest of them packed in as best they could. Deacon, being such a big guy, took shotgun next to the really gorgeous dude; Jazzy got into the second seat that was designed for two passengers, and squeezed in with Beth, Logan, and Matt.

The woman climbed into the third seat in the back near the still unconscious Nicky. She sort of scrunched down on the floor. Then she poked her head around the edge of Jazzy’s seat as the one she called AJ slowly drove the car away from the curb. “A couple of you guys, duck down so the cops don’t pull us over for not having enough seatbelts. That’s the last thing we need. We’re just a couple blocks from home.”

Beth and Jazzy hit the deck in a tangle of legs. “Oh shit.” Jazzy slapped her hand over her mouth, but she still got the giggles. Crap…that always happened when she got nervous. Beth just looked totally shell shocked, but she had it bad for Nicky, not that he’d ever noticed her. She had to be worried sick right now.

They drove for no more than a couple minutes when it suddenly turned dark. Jazzy poked her head up and realized they were pulling into a garage. “You weren’t kidding. We got here fast.”

“Your friend’s coming around. Let’s get him inside.” The lady turned to Jazzy. “I’m Tala, by the way. The big guy with your buddy is Mik, and the cover model behind the wheel is AJ.”

AJ flashed her a wide smile. “Cover model? That’s a new one.”

“Ah, you know you’re gorgeous, sweetie.” Tala opened the back door and helped hold the towel around Nicky’s waist. He was definitely coming around now. Wide-eyed and scared, he jerked his head from side to side.

When he spotted Beth, his eyes closed for a moment. “Beth? What happened?”

“Wait until we get inside. I’ll help you.” Mik had Nicky in his powerful arms before Nicky even had a chance to protest. Beth followed quietly. Tala led them all up the stairs from the garage, into a surprisingly large, sunshine-bright hallway.

Mik kept going. Jazzy and the rest trailed along behind him. AJ passed them in the hallway and opened a door into what looked like a separate apartment. “Let’s put them in the rooms we had for Adam and Eve. I doubt they’ll be back anytime soon.”

Jazzy nudged Logan in the ribs with her elbow. “Adam and Eve?” she whispered, grinning. He just looked at her and frowned. She ducked her head. He made her feel so damn small sometimes.

“Good idea.” Ignoring her stupid comment, Mik carried Nicky through the door, across a large living room, and into a larger bedroom. Tala fluffed up a couple of big pillows and leaned them against the iron headboard. Mik set Nicky carefully on the king-sized bed.

Nicky shook his head, confused, looked down at the towel that had slipped away from his waist, and quickly covered himself. He frowned and glared at Mik. “Is anyone going to tell me what the fuck happened?”

Before anyone could answer, he lifted the towel and stared underneath, then slammed it back in place. “Where’s my studs an’ rings? There were studs and rings in my dick.” He lifted the blanket again, flopped it back down and looked at his chest and then his arms, frowning. “I had a nipple ring. The hole’s still there. My tats are all gone!”

Beth stepped forward. She unclenched her fist. Inside were half a dozen metal studs and rings. “These were on the ground after you…”

Logan turned toward Mik. “After he what? What the hell happened to Nicky?”

Mik shrugged his big shoulders and grinned. “He shifted. Turned into a wolf. Piercings, tattoos, anything foreign to the body…it doesn’t make it through the shift.” He turned to Nicky. “Your tats are just dust in the dirt now. The ink flaked off when your skin changed. The studs and rings fell out. If you want to put them back, the holes might still be there, for a while, anyway.”

AJ started laughing. “When you know Tala better, you’ll have to ask her what she lost during her first shift.”

Tala elbowed him in the ribs.

“Oomph! What’d ya do that for?”

She rolled her eyes and smiled at Jazzy. “My IUD fell out on the ground. So much for birth control.”

“That’s all a bunch of crap. People can’t turn into wolves. It’s physically impossible. Nicky just, he just…” Logan took a long, shaky breath.

Jazzy actually felt sorry for him. She wasn’t sure why, but for some reason everything Mik was saying made perfect sense to her. Why couldn’t Logan accept it? They’d both seen Nicky change. Watched him tear that guy to shreds.

It even helped explain the dreams she’d been having, as if anything could.

Mik glanced at AJ and shrugged. AJ grinned, and suddenly he was taking off his shirt. Jazzy’s mouth hung open. The guy really was gorgeous, and he wasn’t stopping at his shirt. Before anyone could say a word, he’d kicked off his sandals and slipped out of his jeans.

Okay, so AJ went commando. Jazzy heard Logan’s quick in-take of breath behind her and wondered if he was reacting to the guy’s package or just circumstances in general. Beth moaned, but it was a sound of fear, not desire. Jazzy grabbed Beth’s hand and hung on tight, but she didn’t take her eyes off AJ.

“What the…?” Matt’s voice clipped off when AJ turned and smiled at all of them, and disappeared.

Just like that.

“Fuck.” Logan grabbed Jazzy’s other hand. Beth fainted and almost pulled Jazzy down with her. Deacon and Matt stood perfectly still. Tala quickly knelt beside Beth.

Jazzy slowly released Beth’s limp fingers. Her heart was pounding in her throat. She heard a weird buzzing in her ears and wondered if she was going to throw up or join Beth on the floor. She glanced down at Beth, who was awake now and blinking owlishly, then back at Nicky. Anywhere but at the big wolf sitting calmly on the floor in front of them.

Right where AJ had been. Then suddenly AJ was standing up and slipping his jeans on over his long legs. “It’s easier to show someone than to try and explain,” he said, as if he’d done nothing special at all.

Beth sat up and shook her head like she was trying to clear it, but she didn’t get off the ground. Jazzy reached over and took her hand again. She really wanted Beth to know she understood how she felt.

“You just turned into a fucking wolf.” Logan’s voice actually shook. Jazzy jerked her head around to see if he looked as scared as he sounded.

Yep. His face was white as chalk.

“So did your friend. And I want to thank you, Nicky.” Tala smiled at Nicky as she stood up. “You got me out of a really ugly situation. I couldn’t shift without giving our species away, but I doubt either one of those punks actually saw you shift. I imagine the police report will come out that there’s a wild wolf on the loose or a vicious dog or something like that, so we’ll have to be really careful about running in the park, but because of you, I’m safe and our secret is safe.”

“Nicky, do you think you could do it again? Can you shift now?” Mik gazed steadily at him.

Nicky shook his head. “I don’t know how it happened. I’ve been having these weird dreams, you know—running in the woods, chasing rabbits and stuff—so I was joking about being a wolf.” He held his hands out in a helpless gesture. “Just now, when AJ shifted, I tried to do it, too. Nothing happened.”

Mik nodded. “Probably the adrenaline rush. When you saw that punk grab Tala, it kicked in and instinct took over. It’s happened before. To Tala, for instance.”

“We don’t need to go there,” she said. “But don’t worry, Nicky. Once you start taking the pills we’ve got with the nutrients you need to shift, it’s going to be a snap.”

“I hope so. I want to do it again.” He grinned sheepishly. “But this time, without ripping some dude’s throat out.”

“There is that.” AJ finished buttoning his shirt. “One thing we all have to learn is to control our animal instincts. There are times when it would feel so good to just tear into some jerk. You can’t do it.” He laughed and winked at Nicky. “At least not every time.”

“You guys are fucking nuts. He killed a dude and no one cares!” Logan took an aggressive step forward.

What the hell was he thinking? Jazzy reached out to stop him, but Tala wrapped her fingers around his arm and gently halted his forward movement.

Jazzy buzzed with a frisson of awareness that felt suspiciously like jealousy.

“Hey, bro…” AJ raised his arms up and stretched, but it was obvious he was doing a little alpha male display for Logan’s benefit. “It’s cool. We don’t treat death lightly. Honest, we really don’t, but we do value our packmates a lot higher than some scumbag out to do us harm. As far as me shifting without warning, well, I’m sorry if I shook anyone up, but it’s easier to show something like that than try and explain it. I know I about shit the first time I saw Ulrich Mason shift. Without warning, I might add.”

Mik, the big guy, laughed. “You and me both. I think it’s like a Chanku rite of passage. Scare the crap out of the newbies. Here…” He pulled a couple of chairs away from the walls. “Sit. We’ll explain.”

Tala dropped Logan’s arm. If Jazzy’d had hackles, they would have very slowly gone down. She couldn’t believe how territorial she felt over him. Logan sat on the edge of the bed beside Nicky. He looked so confused, Jazzy almost felt sorry for him. Tala moved closer to Mik, but she remained standing. As tiny as she was, she barely came to Mik’s shoulder, even with him sitting. “It was the memorial garden,” she said. “The grasses. They’re what drew you to that spot, what helped Nicky shift. You’ve been nibbling on the stems, haven’t you?”

Jazzy glanced at Beth and they both nodded. They all loved the taste of the sweet grass.

“I thought so. We—all of you and all of us—share a genetic identity, one that doesn’t manifest itself without certain nutrients. Those nutrients are in the grasses you’ve been eating. You were probably attracted to the garden by your body’s needs for the chemicals in the grass. Your instincts, latent though they are before your first shift, led you to the foods your body needs. They activated a small gland at the base of your brain near the hypothalamus. That’s what controls your nature and gives you the ability to shift. You’ll also be able to read each other’s thoughts.”

“That’s a bunch of crap.” Logan shook his head. “Nutrients in grasses changing our brains? People turning into animals? Mind reading? It’s impossible. It’s some kind of group hypnosis. I’m not falling for it. I think you people are fucking nuts.” He stood up and towered over Tala. AJ and Mik immediately rose to their feet. Logan blinked rapidly and took a quick step back. His legs clipped the edge of the mattress and he sat down whether he’d planned to or not.

Jazzy figured he might be rethinking his stupid moves. He was probably trying to figure out how to get out of this one alive.

Tala just laughed. “No need for a pissing contest, boys. It is what it is. If you want to put a name to your new reality, we are all Chanku. Shapeshifters with a common genetic background that appears to have evolved somewhere in Tibet, on the Himalayan steppe. Hence, the Tibetan grasses giving all of you a kick start.”

She turned and grabbed the door handle, then flashed a smile right at Jazzy. “I know it seems weird now, but trust me. You are going to love your new life. It’s an adjustment, finding out you’re not really human, but if I can do it, so can you.”

She winked, and Jazzy immediately felt herself relax. Not really human? Chanku. She liked the sound of that. There was a name for what they were. What she was.

She’d never fit in with regular people before, but this…

“I’ll see if I can round up some clean clothes for Nicky,” Tala said. She appeared to be in charge of both the guys. For some reason that struck Jazzy as absolutely hysterical, that tiny little woman bossing two big hunks around.

“Mik, you and AJ find out what you can about our new roomies and what they need. I imagine we’re going to have a long list. We have a lot of extra stuff here, but I’ll plan to make a run to the store after dinner for anything else if I have to. This apartment has two bedrooms and two bathrooms. There are extra rollaway beds in the closets. You’ll find new toothbrushes and other stuff in the bathroom drawers. Condoms in the bedside tables…” She grinned. “You guys comfortable bunking together?”

Jazzy nodded, but she couldn’t bring herself to look at the bed, or at Logan or any of the others. It suddenly clicked that she was sleeping here tonight. This was all just way too weird.

Last night she’d slept under a bush in the park. She glanced at the bed where Nicky still looked lost and scared, and ran her hand over the smooth spread. She couldn’t remember when she’d last slept in a bed with real sheets.

And she’d never, not once, slept with Logan.

Of course, watching the way he’d handled himself with Mik and AJ, she wasn’t so sure she wanted to anymore.

He’d played at being the alpha in their little pack. Here, up against Tala’s men, he wasn’t much more than a mangy mutt.

A very sexy mangy mutt, but a mutt just the same.

Mik interrupted her rambling thoughts. “Okay, you know we’re Mik and AJ. Miguel Fuentes and Andrew Jackson Temple, to be more specific. And you are?” He looked directly at Jazzy with those gorgeous eyes of his, and smiled.

And she forgot entirely about Logan. “Jazzy Blue,” she said.

“That a real name?” AJ laughed.

“It’s the only one I’ve got.” She wasn’t about to tell him her very first john had named her. She’d long ago forgotten the name she was born with. It was too foreign sounding and difficult to pronounce. Her pimp liked to keep things simple.

“I’m Chris March. They call me Deacon.” Chris shook hands with both AJ and Mik. Jazzy thought that was pretty classy.

“Nicholas Barden.” Nicky shrugged. “Just Nicky.” He dipped his head, but didn’t offer his hand.

“I’m Matt. Matthew Rodgers.” Matt sort of scuffed his feet and smiled. Typical. He was even more shy than Beth.

“I’m Elizabeth Garner. Beth.” She blushed and chewed her lower lip.

“It’s nice to meet you, Beth.” AJ held out his hand and she grasped his fingers very briefly, but Jazzy had the feeling she’d rather be far, far away instead of touching the hand of a strange man.

Mik leaned against the door and counted off names. “Okay, we’ve got Jazzy, Matt, Deacon, Nicky, and Beth.” He looked directly at Logan. “What’s your name?”

Logan glared at Mik for a minute too long. Jazzy wanted to kick him. “His name’s Logan,” she said, sensing the rising tension between the two men. “He’s really good at acting like a jerk.”

AJ laughed. Mik merely folded his arms across his chest. “Got a last name, Logan, or is that it?”

“That’s the only name I’ve got.”

“Works for me.” Mik sort of dipped his head in acknowledgment. “I think we’ve got enough clothes and stuff here for you guys to wear. Closets are full and so are the drawers. Everything’s clean. Just take what you need that fits. We’ll make a run to the store later and add in whatever’s missing, and we’ll get rooms straightened out for you as soon as we can. For now, take an hour to rest and get your bearings, feel free to explore the place. This is an old mansion we’ve renovated. Three stories, lots of small apartments like this, though in most of them the beds aren’t made up or the closets stocked with clean clothes. We’ll have dinner in the main dining room around six. It’s another floor up. Stairs at the end of the hall.”

With that, he smiled at Jazzy again, spun around, and left the room with AJ.

Jazzy watched the two of them go, and wondered what the hell was coming next.

The door shut with a soft click. Logan stood up and immediately began pacing. Nicky raised the blanket again and stared at his crotch. Beth turned around to say something, realized what he was doing, and blushed ten shades of red.

Deacon leaned against the door; Matt sat on the bed beside Nicky and bumped shoulders. “I’d help you put them back, bro, but no way am I touching your dick.”

“I’ll do it.”

Jazzy almost slipped her neck out of joint, turning around at the sound of Beth’s offer. “You’d put his studs back in his…his…whatever?”

Beth nodded, but her usually dark olive skin blushed brick red.

“You’d do that for me, Beth?”

She nodded again.

“I’ve got a JL, a Jacob’s Ladder. At least I had one. That’s why you found so many of ’em after I shifted. I used to have barbells running the length of my dick.” Nicky stood up and tightened the towel around his hips. He grabbed Beth’s hand, scooped up the little pile of silver barbells she’d left lying on the spread, and tugged Beth along behind him. “We’ll be in the other bedroom.”

Jazzy stared at the door Nicky closed behind him. “Who’d of thought Nicky had a JL?”

Deacon just shook his head and laughed. “Who’d have thought quiet little Beth would offer to put those suckers back in? Especially when they’ll just fall out again next time he shifts.”

“What do you mean, next time he shifts?” Once again Logan was pacing like an alpha dog on meth. Jazzy realized she was finding him less and less attractive.

“Tala said we’re all shapeshifters.” She stood up and glared at Logan. “I, for one, believe her. Haven’t any of you been having the dreams?”

Logan blinked and looked away. Matt slowly nodded agreement and Deacon gave her a high five. “You, too? And here I thought I was the only one flipping out.”

Jazzy nodded. “Yep. Me, too. Dark forests, the sense of running, hunting wild game. It’s like some sort of freaky feral memory.” She wrapped her arms around her waist and shivered. “I can’t wait to do it for real, if you want the truth.”