Hyena Moon (15 page)

She reared back. "I'm not doing that."

"Aren't you? He's not therapy, Kess. You need to see him for what he truly is--and some of his behavior has been sketchy--and not for what you want him to be."

"And what is he?" She put her face close to his. "Samara's son? A damaged kid? A criminal mastermind?"

Cormac's eyes flared. "A danger to your safety--to all of ours." His eyes dimmed and he brought himself under control. "You're thinking he's like you when he isn't!"

Kess took a step back, trying to reign in her animal side. Her leopard self felt very close to the surface, not surprising with how keyed up she'd been since the night in the Everglades. When she felt her vision return to normal, she took his hand. She wanted to choose her words carefully so that he would understand where she was coming from. "Mac, remember when you first figured out I was a leopard?"

He nodded. "Still one of the best of nights of my life."

Kess ducked her head shyly, still not comfortable with all the compliments he threw at her, but she was trying to get better with them. She continued. "You and your family accepted me--you all gave me a chance. You didn't just throw me out or make me leave or try and kill me. Even when Sek showed up, you didn't force me out. All of you backed me up." She paused, shaking her head. "But you didn't know me. You had no idea if I was good or bad or a spy or whatever. You took a chance. On me. I'm just asking that you do the same for Rafe. His mother left him with us, thinking we were going to kill him. Come on, Cormac--the kid hasn't had it easy. This could be our chance to help."

Cormac stroked her cheek, palming it in his hand. "Kess, I realize you want to help him and I love you for that. But his situation is different from yours. You were running away from your brother. He's directly involved with a rival pack that's in a territorial war with your clan. There's a lot more at stake if we're wrong."

Kess took a deep breath. "I'm willing to take that risk. And it seems like your sister is too."

Cormac's eyes darkened. "She's too young to know any better."

Kess put her hands on her hips. She knew he wasn't going to like what she had to say next. "Now you sound exactly like my brother. Nice."

"Don't you EVER compare me to him!" Cormac had never shouted at her, but he did so now.

Kess flinched but didn't back down. A few people passing turned to look at them, but no one stopped. She grabbed Cormac by the arm, moving him toward the parking lot and the car. This was a conversation better had in private.

When they were close to it, she whispered, "Let me tell you something, if you try to keep her from hanging out with Rafe, you're just making him more attractive. She'll sneak around behind all of our backs; she'll manufacture reasons to see him just because he's off-limits."

He pulled away from her and continued on ahead of her. "You don't know that!"

Kess put on a burst of speed and cut him off, blocking his way to the car with her body. "Of course I do! She's already snuck off from your parents to come down here!" She took a breath. "She's a fifteen year old girl. So was I when Sek started following me around, monitoring my every move, telling me who I could and couldn't see. I snuck out at every opportunity. I lied to him about who I was going to be with. I wasn't going to let him control me. If you try it with Lenore, she'll do the same thing."

"She wouldn't do that. Lenore's a good girl!"

Kess went still. "And I wasn't?"

"You know what I mean." Cormac reddened.

"No. No, I don't know what you mean." She felt a watchfulness in her stillness, like she did when she was a leopard, stalking her prey. The silence grew heavy, almost as if it was another participant in the conversation. When Cormac didn't answer, she walked the rest of the way to the car and leaned her back against the passenger door.

She watched him slowly walk over to join her. He leaned against the car, an arm's length between them. "You can ask Rafe to stay away from her. He owes you that much."

She didn't turn to look at him, choosing instead to watch the parking lot. "I won't ask him to do that. Lenore would still come looking for him and what could he tell her? Whatever he says will make her more likely to go off on her own. This way, we can keep an eye on both of them."
And I'm not going to ask him stop being friends with her,
she thought to herself. Rafe wasn't a threat to Lenore. Of that, she was certain.

"Then as clan leader, what do you propose we do to ensure my sister's safety?" Cormac sounded tired.

She knew she didn't have an answer that would satisfy him, but she gave it her best shot. "We watch them. I've already got folks looking after Rafe and I know you and Finn are basically Lenore's bodyguards while she's here." Kess took a moment, and then continued. "You could stop keeping things from her and just tell her what's going on down here."

He shook his head, not looking at her and Kess backed off. Way off. She knew better than to press her point further than she should when he was like this. Lenore was his family, not hers, and he was the only one to decide how to handle her. And she didn't want to make things any more awkward between the two of them.

She felt his hand tentatively take hold of her. Kess glanced over as he raised her hand to his mouth, brushing his lips lightly across her knuckles. "I'm sorry." His voice was so quiet she had to lean in to catch it. He pulled her closer and she let him, but not for the first time she wondered if coming home was going to cost her more than she was willing to pay.

Chapter Twenty

Lenore pulled her feet up beside her on the couch, watching as Rafe fiddled with the DVD player. She liked watching him, especially when he didn't know she was doing so. She wasn't able to do it often because, if there was one thing the boy was clued into, it was eyes on him. But when she was able to watch him unobserved, she was able to see the natural grace of him, without any of the awkward diffidence and shyness that he had most of the time.

He turned around, remote in hand, and she smiled at him. She itched to push the black hair out of his face so she could just stare at the almost sharp planes and angles of him unhindered. He gave her a tentative smile back and came over to join her on the sofa. They were alone, which gave Lenore a thrill. She had him all to herself. Kess was busy with some of the other wereleopards and Cormac and Finn had gone off to do wolfy things.

This was the first chance she'd gotten to be alone with him, without her brother or Kess staring at him over her shoulder. She planned to make the most of it.

"You ready?" he asked, pointing the remote towards the console system. When she nodded, he hit Play.

Lenore reached over and dimmed the lights. She was hoping the darkness might give him a few ideas. She turned her attention back to the screen, but she was very conscious of him perched only a foot away from her. Rafe and Finn had gone to the grocery store and Rafe had gotten them a movie, so she was hoping to see something with a lot of action and stuff blowing up. Instead she heard a flowery score and was treated to the view of an Italian countryside at sunset. She frowned. Unless said countryside was turned into a blazing crater in the next scene, she had the horrifying feeling she was going to have to sit through a schmoopy cinematic love-fest.

No luck with the burning crater. Lenore sat back with a sigh. Rafe couldn't possibly like this stuff, could he? If he'd gotten this romantic comedy for her, Finn should have been able to tell him otherwise.

Finn.

Of course her cousin would think this was a hilarious joke on both of them. He knew she hated these kinds of movies. She had to get him back for this. She began to plot ways to make Finn suffer for inflicting this exercise in questionable taste upon her.

She and Rafe sat in silence for the first half hour of the movie. Lenore snuck sidelong glances at Rafe and he seemed just as bored as she was. They both fidgeted, rearranging themselves on the couch, readjusting pillows and limbs in an effort to stay awake. The only bright spot in all of it was that she managed to edge closer to Rafe, so that their shoulders touched. She'd hoped that he'd put his arm around her, maybe lean into her a little bit, but he held himself stiffly, as if afraid to relax even though nobody was around to see them.

Finally, she'd had enough. "I'm going to get some popcorn."
And an IV drip of caffeine to keep me awake through this snorefest.
"You want anything?"

Rafe paused the movie and got up. "I'll come with you."

When they reached the kitchen, he asked, "What do you think of the movie so far?"

Lenore raised her eyebrows at him. "Honestly?" When he nodded, she decided to let him know her unvarnished opinion. "It sucks. I hate sappy love stories."

Rafe looked confused, then his brows lowered in a glower. "Finn said…"

Lenore corrected him before he could continue. She had a very good idea of what Finn had said. "First rule: NEVER listen to anything Finn has to say. In fact, you could ignore Finn entirely and still live a full and complete life." It wasn't a very nice thing to say about her cousin, but his pranks did get old, especially when they may have interfered with her plans with Rafe.

He looked shocked for a second, and then smiled at her from behind bangs too long for his face. "I guess I figured you'd like that kind of movie. It seemed like the kind of thing girls like." He shrugged.

Lenore put a bag of popcorn into the microwave and hit the Start button. "I'm a girl, Rafe, not a moron." She smiled a little to let him know she was kidding with him.

He grinned and went to the refrigerator, grabbing cheeses and meats and condiments and laying them on the island. "So what movies do you like?" He reached in and nabbed a Coke. "Soda?"

Lenore took it from him and he pulled out a can for himself. "Nothing like that one, that's for sure." She watched, fascinated as he began to construct a triple-decker monstrosity of a sandwich. She knew she shouldn't be surprised; her brother and cousins ate enough to feed three other families, but Rafe was so skinny she wondered where he'd put it. Did he have couple of extra stomachs like a cow?

"Okay, so what should I get for next time?" He spread mustard on a piece of bread, intently staring at the items in his hands and not at her.

Lenore felt her heart speed up. So there was going to be a next time, was there? That was promising. She stifled the grin that threatened to spread all over her face and tried to play it cool. She took the popcorn out of the microwave. "Something with action. Guns. Fighting. Monsters are good too." She looked over at him and saw he was regarding her with surprise. "What?"

She caught him watching her curiously. "I just wouldn't have expected you to like those."

"Oh, so longing looks and broken hearts seem more my speed?" She threw a piece of popcorn at him. He caught it and ate it. "I grew up with two brothers and cousins. There weren't a lot of princess movies to be had around my house."

Rafe put his sandwich on a plate and grabbed his drink. Lenore followed him back into the living room, holding her popcorn bag and soda. When they'd settled on the sofa, he turned off the movie and faced her. "So what was it like at your house?"

"Like growing up?" Rafe nodded. Lenore took a sip of her soda, trying to figure out what to say. She had a feeling her upbringing had been vastly different than his. "Crazy. I mean, there was always something happening and the house was full of people. I come from a pretty close family. My uncle Griff—that's Finn's dad—and his family were always over at our house so it got loud a lot. I guess all us kids fought some, but we mostly just got along and got into trouble." At Rafe's dubious look, Lenore countered, "You've met Finn. Now multiply that times three. At least Mac and Burke never got caught."

Rafe took a bite of his sandwich. "What about you?"

She fluttered her eyes. "Little old me? I was a perfect angel." He snorted and choked and she pounded him on the back.

When he was back to breathing, Lenore sat back, a satisfied smile on her face. Rafe wiped at streaming eyes and managed to heave out, "I bet."

"I'm the only girl in the family and I'm not a were. Of course I'm going to be coddled." She grinned impishly. "I got away with murder." Then she frowned. "Until they got wise to it, anyway."

Rafe laughed at her false dejection. "When did that happen?"

When I hared off for Miami on my own without telling my parents
."I was eleven." She slid a little closer to him on the couch, mindful of his half-empty plate. "So I told you mine; you tell me yours. What was it like at your house?"

Rafe went very still very suddenly. It was almost like he forgot to breathe. He plucked at a piece of bread, tearing it into smaller and smaller pieces, the actual sandwich forgotten. Lenore mentally kicked herself. She kept forgetting that he didn't live here, in Miami, and that his home life was probably less than ideal.

She opened her mouth to tell him to forget about her question, that it had been a stupid idea and he didn't have to tell her anything, when he spoke. His voice was quiet, subdued. "It's just me and my mom and my sister. My dad left a long time ago."

"Why?" Lenore kept her voice soft, trying not to break the spell that had gotten him talking.

Rafe shrugged. Lenore watched him carefully. His face was closed off, a pale blank beneath his cap of shaggy hair. "My mom, I guess. He got tired of putting up with her. At least that's what she says." His topaz eyes flickered with something she couldn't make sense of. "She said he was a coward, that he was weak."

Lenore looked around the room, unsure of what to say or do next. "Rafe, I don't..."

"It's fine," he said, cutting off her words. His voice had an edge to it, like he was barely holding back anger. "You didn't know what you were asking. It's not a big deal."

The hitch in his voice told her otherwise. She lowered her eyes, trying to figure out how to fix this. Her simple question had ruined the mood of the evening. Note to self: family is off limits. Now she had to find a way out of this conversational black hole. She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye and waited for inspiration to strike.