Mingled: Chapter Two

Awakened by the annoying beeping of my cell, I stubbornly rolled over and grabbed it off the nightstand.

"You are not going to believe what went down at the club last night!"

Three hours of sleep was not enough to deal with the high squeak of Cynthia's voice. "Cynthia, did Tiffany give you my number? I have not had enough sleep to listen to gabber on about Elvin gossip. Your father would be livid if he knew you were talking to me."

"Nevermind my father, listen, this is important. So some guy totally fronted on Jeremy last night..." Cynthia was like the Valley Girl from the Forest, always keen on gossip and drama. Sweet girl, but boy could she wear on your nerves fast.

"Cynthia I don't care about this crap."

"No, it's not like that at all. He was headed up to the bathroom when all of a sudden this beefy, on-steroids-looking guy body-slammed him into the wall. I have never seen Jeremy so mad...well except for that day you left the tribe to go be with Michael...but anyways, this guy and Jeremy were going to town until finally, the bartender threatened to call the cops. The guy had a weird tattoo on the back of his neck. I saw it when he had Jeremy pinned to the wall. It was a dark black circle with a red dot in the middle of it and then a nail piercing the dot. It wasn't very creative in my opinion, but it got me thinking about how you said you thought something weird and all spooky was going on. Do you think it's all connected?"

"I don't know Cynthia, but I'll look into it." I wished her well and thanked her for calling, even though I wish she could have at least called later in the day, and I told her I hoped Jeremy was okay, I did but part of me hoped he got his ass kicked, and then hung up the phone. I had just lied to Cynthia. I knew the symbol she described. When the police had found Michael's body, they had also found a card stuck on his windshield wiper with the exact symbol adorning it. The detectives dismissed the card as a secret flyer for an underground party they had broken up the night before.

I desperately needed more sleep but there was no way I was going to be able to fall back to sleep now with all this on my mind. I climbed out of bed and pulled on a pair of sweatpants and a yoga tank and headed out to the kitchen. I put on a pot of coffee and sat down on the couch reaching down to grab my laptop. First task of investigation is research. Red dot tattoos...Google returned nothing but images of bad cover-up tattoos. Red dot and nail society...ugh, still nothing.

I about fell off the couch I jumped so high. Thump! Thump! Thump! No what, who the hell would be at my place this early in the day? "I'm coming! Stop banging on my damn door!" I opened the door to find Luke, Michael's best friend standing in the threshold.

"Where the hell have you been?"

"Since when do I need to report my whereabouts to you Luke?"

"I stopped by with pizza and beer last night. I was worried about you."

"Yeah, okay. Well come in." Not that I needed to offer him an invitation because he had already pushed his way into my apartment ahead of me.

"Well you smell like vodka and bar but you didn't bring anyone home. No luck hunting, huh?" Werewolves have an exceptional sense of smell, he would have smelled sex before I even opened the door.

"What's it to you? It's killing me," I confessed.

"I know what you're thinking Miss Rachel. I can see your face, and for your information, I've been behaving myself. I'm getting old, you know?" He smirked. Old was all in perception when you were a Werewolf or Elvin.

Luke was blonde-haired, had deep gray eyes, and as muscular and toned as an underwear model straight off a billboard. Werewolves were definitely heart-pumpers, and not for the weak libido type, they could get crazy in the sack. Damn, I missed that. My stare lingered on him for a bit...Crap, there go my crazy hormones again. This was Michael's best friend, and Michael was dead. I felt horrible for even looking at Luke, let alone fantasizing about him in bed. Oh, it's just been so long since I've been with a man.

"Hey, you okay Rach?" His voice snapped me out of my thoughts and back to reality.

"Yeah Luke, I'm okay, just distracted. I had quite the night. I have some new information though." I poured two cups of coffee, one for me, and one for Luke, and spent the next hour telling him about my night and what Cynthia had called and told me this morning.

"You need to be careful, Rach. I'm here for you, you know."

"Thanks Luke."

I had to be at work in an hour so I showed Luke out, agreeing to meet him for dinner after work after a lot of persistence on his part. I took a quick shower. I pulled my hair back into a messy bun, scribbled some black eyeliner under my eyes, and pulled on a dark blue tweed pencil skirt and a cream-colored button-up blouse, slid my blue heels on, and rushed out the door. The look will have to do for today.

I worked as an art history professor at the city university. Today were my late classes which I was truly grateful for after the night I had. My class was full and with much variety, from the preppy rich girls to the punk rock rebels. Apparently, I had developed quite the reputation on campus and my class had become a favorite, even with a waiting list.

The clock struck eight and the last bell rang. The school day had finally come to end. The students grabbed their books and scurried out of the classroom. I kicked my heels off and sat down at my desk. I still had a few papers to grade before heading out for the night. The school was closed tomorrow for Veterans' Day which would give me a day to catch up on some sleep. I pulled my cell phone out of my desk drawer and dialed Luke's number.

"Hey, you finally done for the night?"

"Yeah, what are our dinner plans?"

Luke had set up dinner reservations at Au-dela'de (means "beyond" in French), an upscale steakhouse in town. He set up the reservations for nine which didn't give me time to go home and change.

"I'll pick you up from campus, be there soon." He hung up. He didn't even give me the chance to offer to meet him at the restaurant which meant he was already on his way. I stopped by the bathroom to touch up my makeup and unbuttoned the first few buttons of my blouse for a more relaxed look before heading out front to meet Luke. By the time I got out the door he was already there and waiting. Wow, he looked really good tonight, good enough to eat kind of good. He wore black, tailored trousers and a fitted mint green button-up. He held the door open for me of his silver M6, which he called his "silver bullet", one of his cynicisms - "a werewolf with a silver bullet", shutting it softly behind me after I was situated in the seat. He got into the driver's seat and shifted the car into drive.

The majority of the drive was silent. I was too focused on controlling my hormones to start a conversation. Finally Luke broke the silence, "So how was class today? Did you have to break out the paddle at all today?"

"Very funny, Luke."

"I'm just saying that if I was a boy in your class with a hot werewolf-elf as a professor I'd be getting into all kinds of trouble."

"Um, thanks." I was half embarrassed, half flattered.

We arrived at the restaurant and Luke pulled up to the valet parking stand. We strolled into the restaurant arm in arm laughing as we chatted about our day. Luke not only was Michael's best friend but he and I had become close during my time with Michael too, was hard not to when he was always hanging around. We were escorted to a table for two in the back center of the restaurant where a bottle of high end Pinot Grigio awaited us. He knew that was my favorite. He also had known me long enough to know that wine made me playful. We started off with a seared tuna appetizer. We finished off the first bottle of wine before our dinners even came. Luke had ordered us two, rare juicy sirloins. I was in heaven with the first bite. I haven't treated myself to a dinner this good in quite a while, well before Michael had died.

"You deserve this," he said leaning across the table and brushing my hand.

We finished the second bottle of wine and then Luke called a taxi. "I'll make sure you get home safe Rach." In the taxi, he sat too close to me for caution, brushing his leg against mine with every turn the taxi made. The wine was making it very difficult to fight the urges to take a hold of him, the werewolf in me making it even worse. The taxi slammed to a halt, the driver yelling and cursing at the car that had just cut us off. I flew forward. Luke reached out in one swoop and grabbed me before my head hit the back of the front seat. He pulled my face close to his and brushed his lips against mine. I gasped for air and pulled back away from him. He took my hand and whispered in my ear, "It's okay".

The taxi pulled up in front of my loft building. Luke leaned towards the front seat and paid the taxi cab driver. I said goodnight and opened the door and stepped out, feeling torn between the cravings for Luke and mourning for Michael. I started walking towards my building. The night porch lights were on but it was a very dark night. I sensed movement in the bushes to my right and heard footsteps running behind me. Someone jumped on me slamming me to the pavement. I heard the whiz of a bullet through the air, Luke yelped. I felt the heaviness as Luke's weight fell onto me and I rolled over to see that he had been shot. I pushed him off and sprang up facing our attacker. "Rachel, no!" I ran and leaped at the attacker, knocking his gun out of his hand. He was strong but he wasn't as fast as me. I had trained in the tribe since I was a toddler in Savate, a French Martial Art practice, and I had continued training with Michael in Aikido, among taking other independent martial art classes over the last five years. I had the upper hand in this fight now that I had disarmed him. The attacker finally broke free and took off. I didn't have time to chase him. I knew from Luke's cries that the bullet was silver.

I helped him up and we made our way up to my apartment. Where was the damn night guard? Laying Luke on the couch I instructed him to breathe slowly. Werewolf wounds heal fast and I needed to get the bullet out before the wound fused shut. I grabbed a knife from the kitchen and a bottle of vodka. Luke took a couple of swigs from the bottle and then dumped a splash onto the wound. The hole had already started to close. I had to slice it back open. I reached into the hole with my forefingers and grabbed the bullet, it burned my fingers. Luke screamed. I shoved the throw pillow over his mouth to muffle his screams. I pulled the bullet out and threw it onto the floor. I poured more vodka over the wound and placed Luke's hand on it. "Push down hard." I went into the bathroom and grabbed some gauze and medical tape. I unbuttoned Luke's shirt the rest of the way. Damn, I thought, his chest is like a perfectly sculpted mountain. I traced the curves of his chest lightly as I pulled his shirt off of him, continuing to trace the outlines of his muscles down his arms. Shaking the thought of desire from my mind, I refocused on his bullet wound. I placed the gauze over the hole on his left shoulder and taped it in place. Even though I knew it wouldn't take long to heal, it still needed to be dressed in the meantime. Luke had passed out from the pain. Silver to werewolves felt like a knife into flesh for a mortal. I hung his shirt over the chair and left him to sleep.

I went into the bedroom and slid off my skirt. My life had never been exactly calm, but the past two nights were starting a trend I wasn't sure I was ready for. I walked into the bathroom and turned the shower on, turning the knob all the way to hot. The bathroom filled with steam.

His arms wrapped around me. He reached from behind me and slowly started to unbutton my blouse. He kissed me tenderly down my neck. I turned and faced Luke. He slid my blouse off my shoulders and it fell to the floor. He brought his hands up and cradled my face, pulling me to his. Our lips met. He tasted of Grey Goose. His tongue slid into my mouth, and he pulled me closer, our bodies touching. The steam from the shower slid between our bodies as we made love.

I hadn't been with a man since Michael. I had known Luke for nine years, as long as I had known Michael. I met them both the same night and I had chosen Michael, and now I am here with Luke.