In the Woods Ch 3

So my posts will likely slow down again after this one.  I'm slowly but surely running out of back log in terms of fic (although I will finally be rolling out a NEW chapter (not even been posted on AO3!)).  My beta reader and I are both going back to school so our availability for new chapters is spotty, so I would rather stretch out the chapters I have than post them all together and have nothing for you ;0;

***

The next morning found the cabin still crowded, but a little less awkward than the one before. After breakfast and some very quick showers, they unloaded the car and helped Ombric set up his lab space on the kitchen table. Ombric bustled around the table, getting himself organized, while Koz worked on his laptop at the unused desk in the corner. Opposite the desk lay the bed, Jack’s impromptu Sign Language classroom. He’d just sat the two teens down for a lesson when Koz made an interested sound at his screen.

“Did you find an RV?” Jack asked.

“No, but a body was found in Claussen with no heart,” Koz said offhandedly, his eyes not leaving the computer screen. He barely noticed how that drew the attention of everyone in the room.

Jack understood first. “Is this a hunting thing?”

Koz looked up and saw them all staring at him. “Of course,” he said, like it were obvious. “I’ve been looking into that creature from the other day . . .” He fell quiet and both he and Jack eyed the exiles, remembering suddenly that they hadn’t told them about the body they’d found. Jack was a little surprised to see a sort of uneasy understanding pass over Ombric’s face.

“Do you mean . . . the thing in the trees?” Katherine asked in a quiet voice.

Jack and Koz turned to look at her. “You saw it?” Koz asked.

“We don’t know what we saw,” Ombric interrupted.

Nightlight finger-spelled. ‘M-O-N-K-E-Y-?’

“It looked like a monkey?” Koz asked.

“It looked like a person,” Katherine said with a tone of deep revulsion.

Ombric held up his hands. “Now, now.” He turned to Koz. “A few nights before we found you, we were all huddled together trying to sleep when Katherine heard something. We saw a shape in the trees above us. It disappeared--”

“Literally disappeared?” Koz asked.

“Oh . . .” Ombric adjusted his glasses. “No,” he said. “I think it realized that we’d noticed it and then it darted away.”

“I thought it was a bear,” Katherine said, shifting uneasily. “I only saw its shape through the leaves.”

“It was eerie,” Ombric said, his tone disturbed. “It was completely silent, just--watching us, right over our heads . . . We didn’t sleep after that. How did you two come across it?”

“Uh . . .” Jack winced.

“We found a body,” Koz said, “entirely eaten.”

The exiles seemed less put off by the body being eaten than Jack would’ve thought normal, but then he remembered Manny’s quasi-cannibalism. “It definitely wasn’t a werewolf either, so it couldn’t have been Manny’s pack,” Jack said. His stomach turned at a sudden thought. “Wait--you guys haven’t eaten humans, have you?”

Koz looked up at Jack with wide eyes. Obviously he hadn’t thought of that either. They both looked over expectantly as Ombric made a face. “No. And I don’t want you to think that’s normal for our kind. Most lycans only bite. Certainly, the urge to eat the human they prey on is unusual. I hypothesize that the drive that compels lycans to attack humans is not one of hunger, but of a need to increase the species through lycanthropy’s unique reproduction method.” He shrugged. “As for Manny, I think his habit of eating his victims is as much about hunger as rape is about having sex--it is not fueled by a biological drive, but rather, a desire to exert power over another person.”

Jack looked sidelong at Koz and was startled to find him looking nearly green. He then remembered how Koz’s wife died. Time to change the subject.

“So Koz, do you think this new body was killed by the thing in the trees?” He asked.

Koz rubbed his forehead, still looking a little pale. “Er . . . At this point it’s possible, but I don’t believe so. Creatures don’t usually change their MO, but we have no idea what the circumstances were or anything regarding this monster. We honestly just don’t have enough information to go on at the moment.” He looked at the laptop screen thoughtfully. He tapped his fingers on the keyboard. “It happened in Claussen, so North and Bunny might be on it already but . . .” He leaned back in his chair, frowning. “It won’t be good if their investigation leads them into the woods and they find us.”

Ombric blinked owlishly behind his thick glasses. “Why would that be bad? Aren’t these people hunters like you?

Jack winced. Koz glanced over at Ombric, his expression carefully neutral. “Our relationship is similar to yours and Manny’s.”

“Ah,” Ombric flushed slightly, “Never mind then! Yes, let’s avoid detection.”

Koz nodded, his expression still stormy as he glanced toward Jack. “I think the best course of action is for you and me to jump on this investigation before they do.”

Jack sat up at that. “You and me?”

Koz nodded, the corners of his lips quirking up in a ghost of a smile. “Hunters work in groups. We can let Ombric focus on the cure and these two--” he fixed a stare on the two teens in turn, “--you two focus on finding an RV.”

He looked back at Jack and Jack raised an eyebrow. “So . . . I’m coming along for this?”

Koz nodded. “But considering we’re both missing persons still,” he said, “we’re going to have to put together a disguise.”

*

They’d gone to Mr. Qwerty. Jack was starting to think of the golem as a sort of hunters’ secretary. He ‘made a note’ that Koz was on this case as well as the case of the dead camper, scowling all the while because Koz refused to have his name attached to either case.

“I’m supposed to be dead,” Koz pointed out, “Dead men don’t pick up cases.”

They got what they needed from Koz’s storage locker. Mr. Qwerty then produced another key leading to . . . a bathroom.

“Some hunters live on the road,” Koz said with a shrug. “Having a private bathroom available is a blessing.”

A few hours later and Jack was trying not to fidget in his newly acquired suit (Mr. Qwerty also apparently had access to a closet-full of spare clothing). They were driving a different car, nicer than the van, but not too nice.

Occasionally, Jack caught a glimpse of his reflection in the windshield or side mirror and each time he did a double take. He wasn’t wearing a pair of glasses with a rubber nose, but he may as well have been for how weird he felt looking in the mirror. His white hair had always been very unique. As a missing person about to approach a bunch of police officers, it would’ve been too distinctive. So naturally, they’d dyed his hair brown. He couldn’t decide if he liked it or not, it was just . . . weird.

He glanced toward Koz. He was wearing a disguise as well, albeit a rather pitiful one--but if it worked for Clark Kent then what was Jack to say? Jack may have discovered a secret glasses kink because Koz with glasses was maybe twice as attractive as Koz without. And then to top it off he was wearing a suit. Not an awkward-fitting, borrowed suit like Jack’s--a suit meant for Koz. The overall effect was that Koz was damn attractive at the moment and by the time they pulled up in front of the police station Jack was trying to suppress a fantasy of forbidden love between FBI agents.

“All right,” Koz said, killing the engine. “Now remember, they’re going to peg you as a rookie, so don’t worry about looking nervous.”

“Don’t talk too much or ask too many questions,” Jack repeated Koz’s earlier lecture. “And it won’t be a problem that I don’t have a fake badge like yours?” Jack asked.

Koz shook his head. “These men know me--or think they know me. I’ll be able to introduce you as my partner and they’ll believe me.” Koz put his hand on the car door. “Ready?”

Jack nodded.

The inside of the police station looked surprisingly like an office: very drab, very boring, lots of desks. Jack tried to look like this wasn’t his first time at a police station and kept close to Koz’s side.

“Agent Farida!” The receptionist the door jumped to. “We weren’t expecting you!”

“I know,” Koz said, his accent going twice as posh. “I’m sorry to drop in, I only just received word--”

“Agent Farida?” An older man with a bald head and the jowls of a basset hound strode over, his face darkening. “I’m afraid I missed the memo--what case are you taking off my hands this time?” He spoke cordially enough, but there was a well-polished edge to his voice.

“Hello, Captain,” Koz said, his tone suddenly clipped, growing icy to match the officers. “As I was telling Miss Brewer here, we were sent out quite suddenly. I apologize if our offices failed to notify you immediately.”

The man’s eyes slid over to Jack.

“This is my new partner, Agent Annie,” Koz said quickly, barely letting Jack get out a ‘nice to meet you’ before continuing. “We’re here about the body found this morning with no heart?”

The man sighed through his nose. “I had a feeling you’d come in about that one.”

They were showed to an interrogation room--apparently one of the only places you could have a little privacy in the whole station.

“Would you like some coffee or tea, agents?” The receptionist asked politely, one manicured hand holding the door open.

“Yes, tea please, Miss Brewer,” Koz said with a practiced ease.

“Uh, coffee. Thanks,” Jack stuttered.

She smiled softly at Jack as if to say ‘poor dear’, before ducking out again.

There was a quiet pause and then Koz explained. “It usually takes a minute for them to gather the case files.” He tapped his fingers on the table. “Poor Miss Brewer is probably crying over the teakettle right now, thinking Bunny transferred. She had quite the crush on him!”

Jack snorted. “I’m not surprised . . .”

Koz smirked wryly. “He was a looker, I’ll admit.”

Jack quirked an eyebrow. “Was he straight?”

Koz winced. “I made out with his dad once.”

Jack slapped a hand over his mouth. He was supposed to be an FBI agent--he couldn’t fall apart laughing. “Yeah, that’d complicate things I bet.”

Koz let out a self-conscious laugh and Jack’s chest squeezed. Before he could stop himself, he spoke, “You’re adorable.”

Koz flushed as his expression slipped into one of pleasure mixed with indignant outrage. Jack just smiled, albeit somewhat sheepishly. So long as he didn’t act like Koz’s outward flustering made him inwardly flustered as well, he could pretend that the interest that’d once sparked between them wasn’t making a resurgence.

Luckily he was rescued by the reappearance of the receptionist, bearing their drinks and a file under her arm.

“Here you go . . .” She said, carefully offering the drinks before she set the file on the table. “Here’s the case file we have on the Rider murder, we’re still waiting back on a few lab reports though.”

“I’ll need to see those when they’re finished,” Koz said, taking a pad of paper and a pen from his inside pocket, he scribbled something on it. “We’ve done some reconfiguring with our security lately. Here is my new contact information and Agent Annie’s as well.”

Miss Brewer thanked him, took the paper and left.

Koz started going through the file, laying out photos and glancing over the crime scene reports. Jack watched it all warily. He glanced over the photos and felt a strange sense of duality. On the one hand, it felt like a movie--the photographs weren’t so different from something he’d see on CSI, but they were real. The dead girl in the pictures was a real person who’d really died.

“Let’s see . . .” Koz said, “Maria Rider found yesterday apparently disemboweled . . . bloody paw prints not belonging to her dog were found at the scene along with . . . oh, lovely.” He held up a particularly gruesome photo. “The remains of what appears to be Miss Rider’s pomeranian.”

Jack winced. “Poor doggie . . .”

“Looks like they thought it was a random animal attack, but then they discovered bloody footprints at the scene--too large to be Miss Rider’s.” Koz flicked through the photos. “Then there’s the fact that the dog was eaten and Miss Rider wasn’t--she was disemboweled and an animal certainly attacked her, but the only organ not in tact was the heart--which is missing.”

“So . . . does that narrow it down any?” Jack asked.

“Yes,” Koz said in a tone that bordered near pleased. He gathered up the photos and paperwork and put them back in the folder. “We should go to where the body was found and . . . sniff around.”

A few moments later they were on their way, the file open on Jack’s lap.

Koz had suggested he read through them, but Jack hadn’t anticipated how dull they’d be. He might as well have been doing homework for how interesting it was, and the gorey pictures weren’t exactly endearing either. For the first time he was starting to see hunting as a job. A highly illegal, unpaid job. Finally he gave up, reordering the papers before closing the folder.

Miss Rider lived in a small, one story house at the furthest edge of the Claussen University housing. It was the sort of grungy, barely-cared for house you’d expect a graduate student to live in, with the edge of the Claussen forest behind a fence in the backyard--which was really nothing more than an overgrown parking space.

The brakes squeaked slightly as Koz pulled into the space. He reached over to Jack’s side and opened the glove compartment to reveal a box of what looked to be tissue paper, but was actually full of elastic gloves. He took a pair for himself and then offered a pair to Jack.

Jack struggled to pull on the sticky, stretchy gloves as he got out of the car. He raised an eyebrow to see a mountain of beer cans piled along the forest side of the fence, easily three feet tall and five feet wide. It seemed Miss Rider didn’t believe in recycling. “Classy,” he muttered as he managed to snap one glove on.

Koz snorted. “The joys of living in a college town.”

Koz started toward the house. He took one step up onto the house’s rickety back steps and paused. He looked back to Jack’s expectant face, then quickly glanced around to make sure no one was looking before he knelt on the bottom-most step and started sniffing.

Jack snorted. “Picking up the scent boy?” He cooed.

Koz gave him a withering look and kept at it. “I’m definitely getting something,” he said, standing up. “It might help if I can pinpoint Miss Rider’s and the dog’s scent, then I can separate them out of the scent profile and I might be able to track our culprit.”

Jack shoved his hands in his pockets. “Do you get the sensory attacks with smell?”

Koz shook his head. “I haven’t had one in a long, long time. Hopefully you’ll be done with them now too.”

“My night vision came in the other day,” Jack said. “It was kind of . . .”

“Disorienting?”

“Yeah.”

Koz shrugged. “Everything gets easier with time it seems. It might be better to talk to Ombric about it--I’m only six months ahead of you. Who knows? We could both be in for some wild change with no idea what’s coming.”

“So long as it doesn’t come with sensory attacks, I think I’ll be fine,” Jack said.

Koz opened the door with a wry grin. “That’s the spirit; things can only go up from here.”

An ironic thing to be said as one opens the door onto a murder scene, but Jack didn’t say anything.

Miss Rider’s place was just as shabby on the inside as it was on the outside. Faint lines of graffiti could be seen beneath the paint on the walls and dirt encrusted every corner. Miss Rider had obviously attempted to brighten her living room with colorfully patterned throw pillows and a variety of scented candles to adorn her book shelves. There was a couch across from a television set and the front door lay directly across the room from the back door they’d come through. Jack was oblivious to all of this, however. His attention was immediately captured by an enormous brown stain in the middle of the living room floor.

Jack’s stomach turned. That was blood. That was a big blood stain because that was where Miss Rider was killed and ripped apart.

Koz stepped into the room, but Jack hung back. Koz noticed and raised an eyebrow at him. “All right?”

Jack tried for a smile but it came out as more of a wince. “Yeah . . .”

Koz looked at him thoughtfully and then nodded. “You can stay there if you like, I’ll just be a moment.”
Jack swallowed. He wanted to tough it out, but he was feeling distinctly nauseous, so he decided to stay put. He avoided looking at the stain and watched as Koz sniffed around, checking the windows and floors for who knew what before he was apparently satisfied.

“What did you used to do before you had the super sniffer?” Jack asked from his place at the doorway, breathing deeply through the mouth to try and settle his stomach.

Koz smirked and left his place at the window. “We interviewed witnesses and prayed they didn’t turn out to be the monster we were hunting. This might actually make things infinitely easier . . .” Koz said, eyebrows quirking as he stalked toward the front door.

There was a doggy-door set into the front door, and while Jack was still ignoring the big blood stain, he couldn’t help but notice the bloody paw prints heading out. Koz knelt and reached into his pocket for a pocket knife. He cut a small square of carpet from the floor. From another pocket he pulled a neatly folded paper envelope. He tucked the carpet square into the envelope and stood smoothly.

“Do you think you can track whatever did this?” Jack asked.

Koz frowned. “I could try . . .” He trailed off. “. . . but I’ll wait until nightfall. I don’t want to leave the exiles alone too long. I don’t quite trust them.”

“Yeah . . .” Jack nodded. He thought back to when they’d nearly been caught at the school--how Katherine had asked if they should transform. “I don’t know if they’re really bad or dangerous or whatever, but they definitely have some warped ideas for how to handle things.”

Koz lead the way back to the car, his somber expression softening slightly. “It might also be a little conspicuous for a grown man to go crawling around sniffing at stuff in broad daylight.”

Jack crossed around the front of the car and shot Koz a cheeky grin. “Oh, yeah. It’ll look a lot less weird if someone saw that at night.”

*

To say Jack was dissatisfied with his first hunting excursion was a bit of an understatement, but Koz seemed quite pleased. They arrived back at the cabin by late afternoon. Nightlight was sitting on the porch, a gentle breeze ruffling his pale hair, but he didn’t seem to notice. His mood couldn’t have been more apparent if a storm cloud had been hovering over his head. He didn’t look up as they approached, until finally Jack called out to him.

“Hey, what’s wrong?”

Nightlight glanced up at him then jumped. He gestured emphatically to Jack’s hair.

Jack snickered at his shock. “You like it? It’s part of my secret agent disguise.”

Nightlight nodded slowly, staring at his head.

“How did the hunting go?” Ombric’s voice called from the cabin door--which they always left just slightly ajar to avoid dealing with the mountain ash ring. Koz was careful not to upset the shoe they used as a doorstop as the two of them entered the cabin.

Jack paused and looked around. The cobwebs that’d been gathering in the top corners of the room were gone. The counters were wiped down. All of their dirty dishes had been cleaned and put away. Jack breathed deeply. It even smelled better! The cabin may have felt crowded, but at least the three house guests were cleanly ones.

The only cluttered space left was the kitchen table, which was covered in glassware and scattered notes. Ombric stood beside it all with Katherine sitting on one of the kitchen chairs just off to the side. Her chin sat in her hands and she hardly looked up as the Koz and Jack entered the room.

Nightlight crossed around behind them and sat on the (newly made) bed, looking pointedly away from Ombric and Katherine.

Jack glanced at the other two and found Ombric obliviously taking notes while Katherine also pointedly avoided looking at Nightlight. She glanced up at them instead and started in surprise.

“Yeah,” Jack said, “I dyed my hair. Part of my transformation into--” he lowered his voice, “--Agent Annie.”

This didn’t have quite the effect he’d hoped for. Nightlight snickered and Ombric finally looked up at him--only to give a comical start. “Your hair’s dyed!”

Jack snorted and shared a look with Katherine before her eyes lowered back to the floor.

“In answer to your question,” Koz said, slipping off his suit jacket and hanging it over the back of one of the kitchen chairs. “It went quite well.”

Koz pulled the paper envelope from his pocket and retrieved the carpet square he’d taken from Miss Rider’s house. He offered the square to Ombric. “Give that a sniff, tell me if it’s familiar.”

Ombric did so with the same polite courtesy of one taste-testing someone else’s recipe. “What am I smelling for?” He looked at Koz expectantly and then his eyes lit up with realization. “Oh--you’re a rather new lycan aren’t you?”

Koz’s eyebrow quirked. “Er . . . yes?”

The lines around Ombric’s eyes crinkled into a smile. He took the carpet piece from Koz and sniffed it gingerly. “I smell: a human woman, young, I’d guess a college student judging by the alcohol. She has a dog . . .” He sniffed again. “Not a Yorkie or a Beagle, but I’m guessing small. Male. And I smell blood. Human blood and dog blood. A lot of it. Quite a lot of men. Rubber gloves. Oh--that’s probably the police! And . . .” His face turned thoughtfully. “A coyote.”

He smiled up at Jack and Koz expectantly. They both stared.

Jack raised his hand. “Question? How can you tell that it’s not a Beagle or a Yorkie?”

“I’ve smelled them before and they’ve got a unique smell. I haven’t smelled too many other dogs though, so I couldn’t say what kind.”

“And it’s a small--male--dog?”

Ombric nodded and looked down at the carpet square with a thoughtful frown on his face. “It’s both amazing and disturbing how much information you can gather from animal urine.” He shrugged and offered the square to Koz.

Koz started at it a moment, his upper lip curled in disgust, before he finally accepted it--albeit gingerly. “So . . . a coyote?”

Ombric nodded.

“A magical coyote or just a normal one?”

Ombric shrugged. “It was a little strange. It sort of smelled . . . well, dead. But also not dead. But not like it was in the room and then died, it wasn’t freshly dead it was . . . dried up and dead.”

“So do you just go around sniffing dead things?” Jack asked incredulously.

“Urine and decay are quite potent; it’s hard not to smell them!” Ombric said a little defensively. His expression shifted quickly to a sheepish shrug. “And I like to pet dogs.” He turned to Koz, who was trying to put the carpet square back into the envelope without touching it too much. “Did that coyote thing kill that girl?”

Koz frowned. “It’s looking quite likely. It sounds like we’re looking for a chupacabra.”

There was a moment of stunned silence while Koz set the paper envelope down on the table and crossed the room to the sink.

“Okay, I’ll bite first,” Jack said, “--a what?”

Koz looked up at him, surprised. “A chupacabra,” he said simply as he washed his hands. “You know, a goat-sucker?”

“They exist?”

Koz turned the water off, his lips quirked upwards. “Werewolves exist.”

“Fascinating!” Ombric chirped. “And they live outside of Mexico?”

“They’re live in and around South and Central America. They don’t usually get so far north,” Koz said flippantly, drying his hands on a dish towel. “They don’t do well in the cold. I’ve only seen them when people smuggle them up north, usually for dog-fights.”

“And they smell decayed?” Ombric asked.

Koz shrugged. “As it was explained to me, chupacabras are born when farmers don’t respect the land. The land utilizes whatever vessel is available to it--typically a coyote--and possesses it, like an angry spirit. Once they’re created however, they’re pretty much free to do whatever or go wherever they want.”

Jack glanced at Katherine in disbelief, but Ombric was already speaking: “Fascinating! Are you going to kill it or capture it? Either way, I’d like to examine it . . . for science.”

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” Koz said.

“Well, we’ll keep an eye--or rather, our noses--on the lookout for undead coyotes,” Ombric said, glancing toward Katherine and Nightlight in turn. He closed his notebook with a snap and set it aside. “Now, change of subject, but I could use that wolfsbane you mentioned, and I’d like to get it before things frost over again. We were thinking Nightlight would go with me. With that thing in the trees still out there, I figured it’s best not to travel alone.” Ombric said this all quite carefully and Jack noticed Katherine look away and shift in her seat.

Koz frowned and looked toward Jack appraisingly. “All right,” he said at length. “We’ll get supper started, shall we?”

“Oh, that sounds lovely!” Ombric said as he hauled his bag up from the floor with only a few audible cracks from his spine. He slipped the straps over his shoulders. “You be good, darling,” he cooed to Katherine. Her gloomy expression cracked as she shot him a withering glare.

Nightlight got up quietly and followed the older man out the door, leaving Jack and Koz to a moody teenager and an awkward silence.

“I’ll uh . . . get dinner started then, shall I?” Koz said, unbuttoning his shirt cuffs and rolling up his sleeves.

Jack watched him go to the fridge and start pulling out ingredients. He glanced at Katherine, who was still sitting gloomily. If only it weren’t so quiet . . . Right! They had a television!

He went to turn it on, flicking through the channels before he settled on the news. It wasn’t entertaining, but it made for good ambient noise. Hm. But maybe Katherine would like to watch something. He turned to ask just in time to see her slip out of the cabin, a firm frown on her face and her eyes red and wet.

Jack sat on the bed and watched the door slowly creak closed behind her, bouncing gently off the doorstop.

He glanced to Koz and saw the man was watching as well, his eyebrow raised questioningly.

“Should we do something?” Jack asked quietly.

Koz shrugged. “It’s not really our business . . .” He said unconvincingly.

“Maybe we should talk to her?” Jack blanched as he said it.

Koz frowned and quirked an eyebrow. “Not a bad idea,” his tone implied he didn’t think it was a good idea either. “But I’m making dinner so . . .” He smiled at Jack expectantly.

Jack rolled his eyes. Well, it had been his idea after all.

He regretted his decision as soon as he stepped outside to the sound of Katherine crying. Why was it that the sound of someone crying always made him feel completely helpless? He was slightly terrified as he approached her.

Katherine was sitting at the corner of the deck, the same place Nightlight had sat. Evening was starting to set in and the bars of the deck railing threw long, vertical shadows across her small form.

Katherine seemed to realize she wasn’t alone. She sniffed and rubbed her eyes in what was supposed to be a subtle move. She grew quiet, the occasional little hiccup was the only sign that she’d been crying.

Hesitantly, Jack approached. “Hey,” he said. “Uh . . .” What to say? “What’s up?” He mentally kicked himself. ‘What’s up?!’

“N-nothing,” she said, her voice still wet.

Jack came to stand beside her, then thought better of it. He crouched, letting out a small groan as he did. He was still wearing his borrowed suit and it was not comfortable. He sat, stretching his legs between the bars of the railing. He didn’t know what to say so he said nothing. He loosened the tie Koz had embarrassingly had to help him put on earlier.

Inspiration struck.

“This is about Nightlight, isn’t it?”

Katherine sighed, her shoulders slumping inward, but she said nothing.

“Hm . . .” Jack thought. He leaned back, bracing his arms behind him and kicking his legs slightly. “Maybe this isn’t my place to say and you can totally tell me to fuck off--but it seems like you two . . .” He sought for the right words. “Have a lot of tension?” He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, trying to gage her reaction. “Did you two used to date or something?”

Katherine’s face couldn’t have gone more red if she’d been doused in red paint. Jack smiled despite himself and looked away in order to get a hold of his features. Katherine reminded him so strongly of his little sister then, he almost felt homesick. Of course, he’d always teased Emma mercilessly about her crushes--it was in the big brother handbook. Dealing with Katherine would be a little different.

“We weren’t dating,” Katherine mumbled. “But . . . we kind of were . . .?” Jack schooled his expression enough to look back at her and found her seeking understanding in his face.

He raised his eyebrows. “You liked each other but you weren’t official yet?”

Katherine nodded. “But . . . well, he’s different now. He didn’t used to act this way. He was so sweet. He’d never hurt anyone in his life. He was just sick to death when Manny put us through those trials. We kept trying to think of ways to pass without really succeeding like Sophie did--boy, that made her so mad.” She chuckled wetly. The smile slipped from her face and her eyes went distant, her thoughts miles away. She shook her head abruptly. “Ever since he was shot,” she said. “He gets angry over the smallest things--and he gets angry at me! He used to be so patient, and he always knew what to say to keep me grounded and now everything I try to say or do, he gets mad at!”

Jack nodded, understanding coming to him. “Okay, so . . . story time: a few years ago, I broke my leg.” He patted his thigh. “My femur--which in case you didn’t know--is a really bad break. I had to stay in the hospital, go to physical therapy, wheelchairs, crutches, cane--I had to learn how to walk again. It was not fun, believe me. And when I was done with it all, my friends were all in college, and I was going to have to repeat senior year, and I’d lost my chance at a track scholarship.” He glanced at Katherine to see her patiently listening.

“It might be a little different than your guys’ situation, but I think I have an idea of what’s going through Nightlight’s head. He’s angry because he’s still not recovered. He’s frustrated because things that should be easy are suddenly impossible, and he has to rely on help for everything. Especially if you used to rely on him more, he’ll be upset that now you have to take care of him. And he’s probably scared shitless because, well . . . he still can’t talk. He might not ever be able to again and that’s . . .”

Jack trailed off suddenly. Katherine was crying again, not even trying to conceal her tears this time. Jack looked away, shame making his cheeks flush. He hadn’t meant to make her cry! “I’m sorr--”

“What should I do?” She asked, her voice thick. “I want to help him, but I don’t know what to do.”

Wasn’t that the million dollar question. “Just . . .” Jack struggled to find something other than a useless placation. Finding none, he offered the best platitude he could think of. “You just need to be there. Just . . . give him some more space. Let him be angry and frustrated for a while. He might never be exactly the same as how he was--near death experiences will do that to you--so just prepare yourself for that possibility.”

The tears were back again.

Jack shifted uncomfortably. He’d gone on a little further than platitudes . . . Perhaps he should’ve just kept it at that.

He pulled his legs back through the bars so that he could balance better. Taking care to gage her reaction, he slung an arm around her shoulders. When she didn’t pull away, he rubbed gentle circles across her back.

He half expected her to pull back, but she leaned into him. Her crying broke out into big, hiccupy sobs. Jack swallowed hard, totally overwhelmed. He almost felt like crying himself out of sympathy. He let out a long exhale and stared off into the trees beyond the cabin and tried to ignore the sudden resurgence of homesickness that he’d managed to put off for so long. A few deep breaths later, Katherine calmed down enough to sit up, pulling away from Jack’s side. She wiped her eyes, her shoulders still shaking with hiccups. “Sorry,” she said.

“It’s cool,” he said weakly. “I’m sorry I can’t offer you better advice.”

She shook her head, sniffing. “N-no. I needed to hear it.” A few more tears fell from her eyes, but there was no force behind them. She took a deep shaky breath and then let it out again. “Thanks.”

“No problem,” Jack said. He pulled his arm back and shifted away as un-awkwardly as possible.

The sun had started to dip beneath the tree line. Without Katherine so near, Jack realized how much cooler it had gotten. He shivered and rubbed his arms. “I think I’m going to go in--you coming?”

She shook her head. “I’m just going to . . . think for a little while.”

Jack nodded and stood. He slipped back into the cabin.

It was pleasantly toasty inside. Koz stood at the counter next to the stove. He didn’t turn to look at Jack. There was something vaguely guilty in the line of his shoulders that practically screamed: I’ve been eavesdropping!

Jack approached as Koz dumped something he’d been chopping into a pan. Whatever it was began to sizzle and crack. Koz dumped the knife and cutting board into the sink and washed his hands. Jack sauntered over to his side and shot him a suspicious look. Koz quirked an eyebrow and pointedly avoided looking at him.

Koz had three of the stove’s four burners going. One had a pot of diced potatoes boiling. The pan he’d just added to had a small pile of meat chunks browning. The third burner was occupied by a teakettle. Koz reached across the stove and pulled the kettle off the back burner. He picked up one of two mugs waiting next to the stove for just this reason apparently. He filled the mug and offered it to Jack.

“How did it go then?” He asked pleasantly.

“I think you know how it went,” Jack said, though he took the mug anyway. He took a careful sip. He wasn’t very fond of tea, but it was achingly warm and incredibly soothing to hold. “I had no idea what to say.”

“You did better than me,” Koz chuckled. “All I could ever do when Seraphina was sad was make her a cup of tea and wait for her to tell me all about it.” He went quiet, his eyes going as distant as Katherine’s right before she’d burst into tears.

Jack leaned against him, not quite the one-armed hug that he’d given Katherine, but it startled Koz out of his melancholy. He looked down at Jack with surprise that melted into something unreadable. Jack offered him his mug. “I’d probably accidentally poison you if I tried to make you some comfort tea so you’ll just have to share the one you made me.” He smiled cheekily and was happy to see Koz’s expression twist into a wry grin.

“Don’t mind the indirect kiss,” Jack said as Koz accepted the cup. To his surprise, Koz merely cocked an eyebrow and took a rather noisy sip, all the while offering Jack a playfully appraising look.

Jack’s jaw dropped in half-mocking, half-serious shock at Koz’s casual flirtation. They were back to casual flirting now! He tried and failed to look reproachful. “Kozmotis Pitchiner are you thinking dirty thoughts?”

Koz smirked and it sent a little thrill of pleasure down Jack’s spine. “So what if I am?”

The door squeaked as Katherine entered. Koz and Jack both took an overlarge step away from one another--totally not suspicious at all. Koz suddenly became extremely interested in his cooking while Jack whirled and offer Katherine his least awkward smile.

“Hey Katherine!” He blushed at the high tone of his voice. He cleared his throat. “Did you want some tea?”

Katherine glanced between Koz and Jack, nose crinkling as if she could smell the fishiness in their behavior. “Um . . .” She blushed and glanced between the two of them once again, this time with a distinct air of awareness. “Sure . . .” she said, nearly apologetically.

Jack whirled before he could blush anymore. He reached for the kettle and quickly poured Katherine a cup of tea, all the while ignoring how Koz was trying not to smile.

He took the mug to Katherine, who’d sat down on the bed in front of the television. She seemed to be doing her best to watch them discretely. Jack handed her the mug. At a loss for what to do next, he sat down on the bed as well, putting a good foot of space between the two of them.

Katherine tapped her fingers on the glass, drawing his attention. Hesitantly, she pointed at Koz and then Jack, eyebrows quirked suggestively.

Jack flushed, glancing toward Koz. He hadn’t had too many times to check Koz out from behind. He had great shoulders, perfect posture, and his slacks did wonders for his ass. Jack forced his gaze back on Katherine only to find her also staring at Koz appraisingly. She sipped her tea and glanced toward Jack. She smiled an extremely suggestive smile and gave him a thumbs up.

Jack blushed beet-red and buried his face in his hands.

***

Koz was pleased with himself. He’d started another investigation, maybe patched things over with Jack, and he was doing the cooking tonight so he was making beef stew. They’d been subsisting off frozen dinners for too long now.

He took an onion out from under the stove and pealed it over the trash can. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Katherine on the laptop, hopefully looking for an RV so they could hurry and move the exiles out and no longer have to deal with embarrassing moments like earlier. He mentally cringed.

He washed the peeled onion and set it on a fresh cutting board. He took a deep breath and held it in as he chopped. It was no use though--even before gaining werewolf senses he’d been weak to onions--just the fumes had his eyes stinging and watering. He sniffed ferociously as he diced the onion.

“Um . . . Mister Koz are you okay?” Katherine asked.

Koz flushed and turned to look at the both of them, knife in one hand and half an onion in the other.

“Oh,” Katherine said.

Jack cackled as Koz resumed his task.

He dumped the onion slices in with the browned meat and chased them around the pan with a spatula until they were coated in enough grease that they wouldn’t burn immediately if left unattended.

The evening had taken a surprisingly domestic turn. Koz was used to starting his days at gruesome crime scenes and ending them with quiet dinners at home, but he hadn’t expected to have any such peaceful evenings after . . .

He jerked his thoughts away from his life before--that path was lost to him now. But thinking of how pleasant things were now just made him guilty. ‘Focus on what you’re doing right now,’ he told himself. It was starting to feel like a mantra.

“Shit,” Jack spoke in such a tone of dread, Koz whirled around.

The young man was staring at his trembling hand, the other resting on the back of his neck. Koz reached out his sense and realized by the barely-there ache on the back of his neck, that the sun had gone down.

“No need to worry about me,” Katherine said nonchalantly. “If you’re going to turn, go ahead and strip.” She didn’t look up from her computer screen.

Jack didn’t need to be told twice. In a moment, he was tearing off his shirt and fumbling to coordinate his hands enough to undo his fly.

Koz set down the garlic he’d been cutting and hurriedly wiped his hands on a towel. He rushed to Jack’s side, helping him to stand even as his legs shook too fiercely to make it on his own. He glanced away as he slipped Jack’s pants and boxers off his hips. Not a second after he’d stepped out of them, the young man jerked violently, his whole body shaking as the change set in in full. Koz laid him on the floor as gently as he could considering Jack’s thrashing.

He glanced up at Katherine just in time to catch her looking pointedly at her laptop, eyes wide and lips pursed around a smile. For a second, Koz thought perhaps she’d been peeping, but then he fully realized that he’d just helped Jack strip down in front of her--right after she walked in on them flirting and definitely caught the scent of their arousal. He considered bashing his head on the nearest wall.

Jack--fully transformed--stood up and shook himself, stumbled, and righted himself again. Koz had half expected there to be a patch of brown fur on top of his head to match his dye job, but he was just as snowy white as he’d always been. Katherine must have noticed the same thing. “Interesting,” she said. “I’m sure Ombric will be fascinated.”

Jack’s nose quivered and he looked toward the stove.

“No,” Katherine chided, “you’re going to have to wait just like the rest of us.”

Jack looked back at her and whined.

Koz hurried to the stove to make sure nothing was burning and lowered the heat as he hurried to finish chopping the garlic and carrots. He quickly added those, seasoning, and the cooked onions and meat to the pot of boiled potatoes, covered the whole thing and put it in the oven.

When he looked back, it was to see Jack sitting quietly while Katherine stroked his head. His lip quirked upwards in the beginnings of a smile.

“He seems to like you,” he said.

The smile Katherine gave him was strangely touched. At his raised eyebrow she explained, “with the exception of when we lost control, we’re usually more true to ourselves in our lupine forms.” Her hand slowed on Jack’s head. “So . . . the fact that he’s letting me touch him means that he’s forgiven me a little bit.”

Oh.

Jack blinked lazily before his steely blue eyes focused on Koz. Much to Koz’s embarrassment, the goofy little wolf boy skipped over to him, burying his head into Koz’s chest, tail wagging. Koz offered Katherine a sheepish grin and she rolled her eyes and looked away as if to say ‘you aren’t fooling anyone!’

Jack pressed his chin to Koz’s chest and looked up at him for a moment before licking the bottom of Koz’s chin. “No!” Koz said sternly, face flushing as Katherine snickered. “No licking!” Jack raised his wolfy eyebrows and looked up at him sweetly before the little rat licked him again.

Katherine burst out laughing while Koz started away, furiously wiping his chin. “It’s potato skins for you then,” he grumbled as Jack panted, tail wagging.

Jack started suddenly, as if struck, his ears folded back and he whimpered, edging closer to Koz’s side. His tail tucked between his legs and his head tipped this way and that, searching the room frantically. He whined.

Katherine seemed to shrink as she glanced around. “What’s he reacting to?”

Koz strained his hearing outside the cabin. Was it the Thing in the Trees? He hurried to the hidden compartment under the floor and withdrew one of his shotguns, quickly loading it with silver pellet rounds as Katherine eased off the bed, away from the window.

Koz looked outside the window through the iron bars. He heard nothing unusual, no large creatures nearby, no suspicious smells--but then it was hard to smell anything over dinner. The room seemed to grow cold and Jack whimpered at Koz’s side.

Koz headed for the door. They were safer inside the cabin, but he wanted to see if he could catch a scent on the breeze. He moved the doorstop, just in case he needed to close the door quickly and poked his head out.

He let out an indignant ‘oof’ as Jack nosed past him and darted outside, the door swinging wide as he pushed through.

“Jack--” Koz called, but the white wolf did nothing more than fling himself onto the grass and stand before the cabin, whining.

Koz frowned and scented the breeze. He smelled humidity and rotting leaves and wood, then wolfsbane, tea, mothballs, and soap. Ombric and Nightlight weren’t far off.

Koz stood in the doorway, weapon cocked.

“Is there something there?” Katherine asked from her place by the stove.

Koz shook his head, but kept his eyes trained on the treeline. Jack stalked around in a circle, eyeing the cabin anxiously. Koz had half a mind to check and see if there wasn’t some awful monster hiding on the roof where he couldn’t see, but just as he was about to go check, Ombric and Nightlight came into view. They looked up in surprise to see Jack anxiously pacing outside the cabin, but when they didn’t recoil in horror, Koz figured there was nothing on the roof.

“What’s going on here?” Ombric asked as they entered the clearing.

Koz lowered his rifle and gestured to Jack. “Something’s got him spooked.”

To his surprise, Ombric just laughed and waved an arm dismissively. “Lycans are more sensitive to unseen things than cats! I wouldn’t worry about it . . .” He seemed to lose steam as he started up the cabin steps, huffing and puffing as Nightlight gently supported him from behind. “You should’ve seen . . .” he panted, “Katherine when she was a little pup! Always barking at nothing . . .”

His breathing was heavy. Hesitantly, Koz stepped back into the cabin. “Let me get you a glass of water,” he said.

He unloaded his gun as he made for the cabinets. Setting the pellet rounds on the counter, he got Ombric a glass of water and put the weapon and ammunition away. He still had his handgun more or less hidden under the mattress, so he didn’t feel too unsure about putting the rifle back in the weapon’s safe.

Ombric took greedy gulps of water in-between deep breaths.

Koz spotted Nightlight looking at the compartment curiously and Koz kicked it closed. “All right, here’s an important ground rule: no one but me touches any of my weapons unless I say so,” he said sternly. “Especially you two,” he pointed to Katherine and Nightlight in turn. “These are not toys, they’re for killing things.”

Nightlight nodded, quailing under Koz’s glare, but Katherine bristled. “We’re not little kids!” she said, “we know better!”

“Katherine, I don’t want either of you touching any guns,” Ombric said, managing to sound stern despite his breathlessness.

Katherine deflated at that.

Luckily Jack chose that moment to come creeping back to the door, ears flat and body low. He crept toward Koz and pressed against him, keening anxiously. Koz sighed. “Well, maybe tomorrow you can tell me what’s got you so worked up,” he said. “For now, I think it’s time for dinner.”

Jack’s ears perked up at that. Whatever it was that upset him so ceased to matter entirely after Koz spooned a portion of beef stew into a bowl and offered it to him.

The evening ended on a domestic note, with Ombric nodding off to the eleven o’clock news, Koz doing dishes, and Jack curled up by his feet, while Katherine and Nightlight shopped online.

Koz wondered if it was all right to feel content. He didn’t think he’d mind one day feeling at ease, he just wasn’t sure if he was allowed to just yet. He’d abandoned his daughter, he was one of the worst sorts of parents he could be.

He let out a long exhale as he spread out the bed things across the floor, getting ready to sleep. He lay down, the claws of guilt setting their hooks in--then Jack promptly flopped over across his stomach, driving out his negative thoughts along with all the air in his lungs.

“Jack!” He wheezed, shoving the oversized wolf off of him. Jack just panted, smiling a doggish smile, tail wagging.

Koz snorted and repositioned himself while Jack curled against his side. He let out a long breath and pushed the thoughts away. ‘Focus on what you’re doing now,’ he reminded himself. He carded one hand through Jack’s fur and watched his tail swish back and forth until sleep pulled him under at last.