calmly, without a word. He started to step forward, but I reached up and grabbed his hand.
“It’s all right,” I said. “This is Wulf. He’s a friend—I think.”
Wulf stopped straight in front of us. He was bigger and tougher than I remembered, but had considerably cleaned up. His wild mane of brownish-blond hair was swept back, his beard trimmed, his face washed. Even his worn beige suit had been laundered to the point you could tell it had once been finery. It stood out sharply against a torn but clean t-shirt, whose rips exposed hints of the tanned skin and rough fur of his muscular chest. He stood over me, staring, soaking my injuries in, pale yellow eyes growing more and more wolflike with rage until they were practically glowing.
“Damnit, I was too slow!” he said, voice crackling with anger. His eyes flicked briefly up at Philip, then dismissed him and fell back on me. I tore my eyes away from the rips in his shirt, from the glimpse of the fine concentric lines of some long-faded tattoo, and met his gaze. He studied me for a moment, then snarled. “I’m so sorry. I wish I’d ripped his throat out.”
“Wulf,” I said, throat constricting in fear. “Were you stalk— following me?”
His eyes widened. “No,” he said, kneeling before me, reaching to touch my hand. “No. When I collected my design from Spleen, he said you wanted me to feel free to contact you—”
“I did,” I said, and Wulf flinched a little. “And still do, Wulf.”
“Thank you, Dakota. He said he’d just met you at Manuel’s, so I… uh… ran down there,” Wulf said, with a little smile that sounded like he meant that literally. “When I arrived I heard shouting in the parking lot, caught the end of the attack—”
And then his hand met mine, and he looked down in shock to see the bandages.
“It’s all right,” I said, as he stared at my hand. “Just cuts and scrapes. I—I’ll be fine. Don’t worry. I’ll still be able to do your tattoo.”
Wulf looked up sharply. “Even after all you’ve been through?”
I drew a breath at the longing and fear mixed with his concern. Up close, he was suddenly more human than he’d been since I met him, all my attention was on the pain in his eyes. Somewhere deep inside, this wolf of a man was a scared, hurt puppy, running from everyone. Ok, maybe a two-hundred-fifteen-pound werewolf was technically not a puppy—but he was hurt, all the same.
“Of course,” I said, reaching out to touch his hand. I was still surprised by its warmth, even through the bandages. “Takes more than a sicko to stop me.”
“Who was he?” Wulf said. “He was fast—I lost him. Didn’t smell like a were—”
“A vampire,” I said, and Wulf nodded in recognition. “The other vampires are working with the police to handle it. He’s a lot more dangerous than he looks—don’t tackle him.”
“I don’t plan to,” Wulf said. “I’d step up to defend you from an attack, but I won’t go hunting someone down for revenge. I can’t afford to tangle with the police.”
He stood abruptly, tense and jumpy, clenching and unclenching his fists, bare feet padding almost silently on the sidewalk.
“I shouldn’t even be out here—the moon will be rising shortly.” He looked at his watch—and even I could tell it was a nice watch— and cursed. “I can’t trust myself to be out among people, this close to the time.”
“Dakota tells me the tattoo you want her to ink is a control charm,” Philip said, oh so reasonably. “Won’t that help?”
Wulf suddenly stopped and stared at him, nostrils flaring, feet planted, indignant and inquisitive all at once. “Might keep me from making trouble,” he said, but his eyes had grown more wary—and more yellow, almost to the point of glowing. “But it would do nothing to keep my enemies from making trouble for me.”
“Enemies?” I asked. “You have enemies?”
“Everywhere,” Wulf said, staring back at the hospital. “Always making problems for me, wherever I go—even here. I washed up before I came, even got this old thing drycleaned, and still they wouldn’t let me see you—”
“Sorry,” Philip said. “The guards on her floor have a list of names. I’ll put you on it.”
Wulf’s eyes tightened more, glaring at Philip. “I never got to her floor,” he said. “Security guards turned me away at the front door. They were ready for