Chapter 21
Doug's mouth tasted like it was coated in a bitter film. That was his first impression as he started to wake up, along with an annoying ringing noise. He had had the hardest time trying to get to sleep that night. He still remembered that look on Leigh's face before she moved up the stairs and disappeared. It about tore his heart out. He—like her parents—was just one more disappointment in her life. Why couldn't she understand that this was for her good? Her mother ridiculed her enough without Doug in the picture. In fact, Leigh's mother had forbid her to see Doug. If he were around, her life would only get ten times worse. He couldn't do that to her.
Thinking of the way Leigh's mother treated her made his hand curl up into a fist while he lay in that comatose position on the couch. His back ached as he lay on the unfamiliar surface, but at least his ribs didn't hurt half as much as they had the night before. He was still very stiff.
His thoughts were still poking at his consciousness, accusing him—even in his half wakeful state. The annoying ringing sound just wouldn't quit. He threw out in the direction of the noise, his hand groping along the floor until he felt something cool and smooth beneath his fingers. It was a jacket. There was a cell phone in the pocket.
Doug was still kind of fuzzy. He didn't remember owning a leather jacket. He rummaged the cell out of the pocket and blinked at it blearily. It continued to ring insistently. He opened it up and pressed the talk button.
It was probably Rollson again. Darn him…
"Hello?" He managed in a groggy voice.
"Doug? Is that you?"
He knew that voice. "Jamie."
"Are you here in town?" Her voice was rising excitedly. "What are you doing with Leigh's cell phone?"
Doug muttered incoherently, cursing himself. I'm such an idiot, he thought. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. "Jamie, give me a minute. I'm not quite awake."
"Is Leigh with you?"
"Huh? Yeah." In a matter of speaking.
"Doug," Jamie spoke very slowly and clearly. She knew he didn't think very well after he first woke up. "I need you to do something. I want you to turn on the TV and turn it to channel thirteen. Can you do that?"
Doug grumbled. "I'm not three, Jamie."
"Yes, but it is half past six in the morning. The breaking news. And they've been alluding to an important story. I think it has to do with us.
Doug's heart thumped oddly. His hand formed into a fist. If the detective had done something…if he had given away the situation…so help him.
Feet whispered at the top of the stairs. Doug moved to the television and turned it on, not looking up. He could feel his cheeks coloring slightly.
"Is something going on?" A hesitant voice spoke from the landing. He had never heard Leigh sound so soft—so subdued. It bugged him to hear her sound like that. He almost wished that he could take back his words from the other day.
"Yes," He replied, still not looking up. He didn't know if he'd be able to meet her expression. He flipped to channel thirteen. "The news is about us."
He moved back to the couch. Leigh sat on the exact opposite end of the couch. The tension was palpable, buzzing around him uncomfortably.
He tried to focus on the cheerios commercial.
"Doug?" He almost jumped. He had almost forgotten that he was still holding onto the cell phone. "How long has Leigh known? That you were here?"
"Uh," Doug had to clear his throat again. "A couple of days."
"And she didn't tell me you were here?" Jamie asked disbelievingly.
"Jamie, don't you blame her." He was surprised at how vehemently the words had come out. "She's got enough to deal with."
He took a furtive glance in Leigh's direction. She was looking at him oddly, probably wondering if he was talking about her. Her cheeks colored when she realized that he was looking back. Doug turned back to the screen.
Jamie took a long time answering. "I'm not mad—not really. But why didn't you want to me know you were here?"
"It was just…" Doug floundered. "It was still too much. I couldn't quite accept it yet."
Jamie didn't have to ask what it was that he hadn't quite accepted yet. She knew how hard it was for him to know she was a werewolf—especially when he had spent a good chunk of his life slaying 'wolves for a living.
"I missed you," Jamie said.
"I missed you too," he replied honestly. "And I know now—that you're good. I don't just believe it. I know."
He knew how much that meant to her.
"Thank you," she replied softly after a moment. It almost sounded as if she were tearing over the phone.
"We should get together," Doug told her. "All of us. There's some stuff that Leigh and I know that you guys need to. We need to make a plan. Bring everybody—the adults too."
"I'll call them up," Jamie replied. "Everybody can come to the Carlyle house—after we find out what's so urgent on the news."
"Good," Doug replied, his mind already whirring with possibilities.
"Hey Doug, can I talk to Leigh?"
"Oh. Yeah. Just a second."
He took the phone away from her ear and handed it in Leigh's general direction. "Jamie wants to talk to you," he told her, looking more at her chin than in her eyes.
She lifted her hand to take the phone and their fingers brushed accidentally. There was a crackle of electricity between them. Doug pulled his hand back, nearly dropping the phone as he handed it to her.
Doug didn't know what they were talking about because all he heard was a bunch of "no"s, "hmm"s and "yeah"s.
Just then, the commercials ended. The news music played as the camera zoomed in on two figures sitting at a fine wooden table of sorts.
"Well, Kelly," the man stated, turning to the woman. "We have some interesting news coming from Lampton Hill today. Some very interesting news indeed."
Kelly nodded, looking into the camera. "It appears that the Lampton Hill police department had some nice furry visitors yesterday. A pack of wolves broke into the police station late last night and proceeded to cause havoc."
Footage from one of the security cameras began to play. It had a perfect view of the window. Suddenly there was a loud shattering of glass and a great majestic beast flew in through the window, landing on all fours. A large, winter white wolf. Moments later, several wolves had jumped through the window with more to come.
The picture turned back to Kelly and the man.
"You're not going to believe what happened," Kelly said. "Apparently, these white wolves found their way into the evidence room and confiscated a fair amount of evidence. They also managed to crash all the computers. The police are in uproar."
"Now here's the interesting part," Kelly said, leaning forward excitedly. "Our reporters were arriving at the scene just as a detective Tross returned to find the mess. The man was quite distraught that he began yelling about werewolves and a dead body."
The man laughed. "I'd say Tross isn't quite stable. He must have some very interesting theories if he believes werewolves were the cause of the break in. There are people working on finding where the wolves originated from. It does not appear that any animals have escaped from local zoos as of late. It may be that we still have some wild wolves running around in Illionois."
"Now here is the interesting part of the story:" Kelly said. "There is some truth to some of detective Tross's ravings last night. He did in fact bring in a dead body that has been identified as a 25-year-old male victim, Grady McPhee. The detectives tried to locate his family to give them the bad news last night. Grady's mother was rather distraught."
The scene changed again to view a lady with short and curled blond hair, streaked with gray. Her eyes were luminous under a pair of glasses. "I know he's been getting into trouble lately," she sniffled. "I've tried to get him to get back on a good path. I told him he was going to get in trouble some day. Grady was never one to believe that he could get hurt. And now he's gone."
The woman's shoulder's shook.
"It's been quite a blow," she managed to add. "It's always hard to lose loved ones. I only hope that the ones responsible will be caught. They need to be stopped before they hurt anyone else. I don't want any more mothers to hurt the way I am."
The screen turned back to the man and Kelly. The man looked into the camera with a solemn expression. "I'm sure we all hope the perpetrators are caught. That was such a touching scene." He turned to Kelly. "But you don't actually believe in this whole werewolf business, do you? I think Tross may be taking his imagination a little far.
Kelly giggled the mood suddenly light again. "There is one more piece of information that you might find interesting." She turned to the camera as she continued. "Our reporters were there to see Tross's big outburst. There were only a few coherent sentences among the string of curses. One name he seemed to be profaning was that of Douglas Vince who must be in some way in connection with this case."
Doug felt his hand tighten into a fist.
"Efforts have been made to find out just who this man is and what connection he has to the case. Mr. Douglas Vince is remaining illusive. The lack of paperwork on him is astonishing and very suspicious."
"Honestly?" The man said. "This whole story sounds like a bunch of crock, but I agree it is very suspicious. For those who tend toward more supernatural explanations, the detective's idea might be rather appealing."
Kelly laughed, tossing back her long blond hair. "And for the rest of us, we'll just have to wait and see how this situation turns out. Now, onto sports…"
Doug flipped off the TV, feeling like he wanted to smash something. He knew he couldn't trust the detective and the detective had proven it. When he got his hands on the guy…
Doug sighed. He had more important things to think about. He turned to Leigh. "Come on," he said. "We'll take my truck."
Leigh stood, grabbing her leather jacket. "I'm still wearing your clothes," she said, biting her lip.
"Keep them," Doug said, turning his head away so she wouldn't see his flaming cheeks as he caught another sight of the shape of her curves underneath the fabric.
They filed out the door.
