The Werewolf Dates The Deputy - Kristen Painter Page 0,31
wrenched the top off and took a long sip. She closed her eyes as she swallowed. “That’s better.”
He set his beer on the edge of the tub and climbed in. The heat was perfect, sinking into his muscles and instantly relaxing him. He sighed with pleasure as he settled onto the molded seat. “Come on in, feels great.”
She sat on the edge, swung her legs around, and slid in. “Oh! Hotter than I expected.”
“Too hot?” He cranked the cap off his beer and tried it. Not bad. A lot more complex than the stuff he usually drank. He could see it growing on him. “I can turn it down.”
“No.” She exhaled and slipped farther into the water, finding a seat of her own while holding her beer above the churning surface. She found a spot for the bottle on the edge, then tipped her head back. The sky was filled with stars now that it was completely dark. “This is really nice.”
“It is. I like the Warhammer too. The flavor’s a lot more layered than the beer I usually drink. It’s good.”
She smiled. “I’m glad.”
They settled into a comfortable silence, enjoying the moment despite having not yet discussed the evening’s earlier event.
Then one of her feet brushed his leg, sending a current of sensation through him that had nothing to do with the bubbles or the water or the heat. It made him think about those electric blue toenails. It made him want to kiss her. Even so, he ignored it and held still. She hadn’t meant to do that, he was pretty sure.
To keep himself from drifting into the clutches of the love spell, he went right to the thing most likely to kill that mood. The elephant in the room. “That dark, shadowy thing in the woods? I’ve seen it before.”
She stopped staring at the sky to look at him, new tension bracketing her mouth. “You have?”
The skepticism in her voice was interesting. Why would she doubt him? “Yes. At the house. In the attic.”
Her eyes widened. “That’s what you saw?”
He nodded. “After the bomb went off. When we were lying on the attic floor. You were already passed out. It came for you. Out of the shadows. Reached for you like it did in the woods.”
Fear entered her gaze. She sat up taller, causing the water to slosh. “Why are you only telling me about this now?”
“I thought it was a hallucination. And I did sort of bring it up. I asked you if you’d seen anything when we were in the attic. You said no.”
She frowned. “I didn’t. But I certainly didn’t think you meant a wraith.”
He frowned back. “A wraith? You’ve seen one before?”
She sighed, took a long, long drink from her beer, then looked at him. “I have.”
He took a pull off his bottle, set it back on the edge, and waited for her to elaborate.
After quite a few seconds, she spoke again. “They’re dangerous creatures with a lot to lose. They’re a little on the slow side, but they fight hard.”
“What is a wraith, exactly? How do you know so much about them?”
“A wraith in my world is the trapped soul of an undesirable who died but refused to be transported to their final resting place.”
“Undesirable?”
“In every sense of the word. There’s a reason they don’t want to go to that final resting place, if you get my drift.”
“I do. But what do you mean ‘refused to be transported’? Isn’t transporting souls kind of what valkyries do?”
She nodded. “That’s why I know so much about them. When I was in service, I was part of a task force assigned to hunting down wraiths and delivering them to where they belong. Didn’t happen all the time, but when one showed up, we were called in. We went in teams of two. A valkyrie and a seer. That’s what it took to eliminate one. Not a single wraith ever wanted to go either.”
“I can imagine. If they knew they were headed where I think they were.”
“They were. And they knew.” She picked up her bottle, holding it just above the surface of the bubbling water. “Battlefields are a prime breeding ground for them. Men who took advantage of whatever war they were in the middle of to further their own ends. Men who deserved death for one reason or another, but were too stubborn or too awful or too evil to allow death to take them. Men who considered war a game. A way to