Kneeling again, I gripped his torn T-shirt and ripped upward, exposing his right shoulder, revealing the tattoos that had been hidden there. Around his right bicep was a circlet of something that looked like barbed wire, but was twisted vines with claws and talons interspersed throughout. Recurved big-cat claws and raptor talons, some with small drops of blood on them.

I leaned over and tore his left sleeve, exposing the tat there. I rocked back, my fingertips barely touching him. Cold chills raced up my arms. On his left shoulder, from collarbone down his pectoral and around his entire upper arm was a more intricate tat. Much more intricate.

“Lion,” he murmured, unexpectedly awake. He focused on my face, his eyes bleary. “I saw a lion. Half man . . . half cat.”

“Yeah,” I whispered.

“I like lions,” he said.

The tattoos that I had noticed before, the black points that looked vaguely clawlike as they peeked from his left sleeve, were panther claws. The tattoo was tlvdatsi, a mountain lion. And behind the staring, predator face peeked a smaller cat face, pointed ears, curious and somehow amused, lips pulled up in a snarl to reveal predator teeth. A bobcat. My first two beasts. On Rick’s shoulder.

CHAPTER 24

You should have come when I asked

Multiple emergency sirens sounded in the distance, each distinctive—several cop cars, at least one ambulance. Jodi had stopped yelling for Rick, though the line was still open and some of the siren sounds came through the cell, proving that Jodi was one of the cops nearing, tearing down Privateer Boulevard. Getting close.

“You’re in danger,” he mumbled. “From the vamps. I have to help you. . . .”He seemed to know he was talking to me, so I nodded, tying an upholstered arm cover and a second drapery tie-back around his arm, the fibers deep in the wound, slowing the bleeding. I rose, standing over him, my feet to either side, his blood pooled beneath and in my thin-soled shoes, squishing with every shift of weight. Blood had soaked into my pants, wicking up like thin fingers. It was under my nails, in the creases of my hands, splattered up my arms. The bleeding at his chest had almost stopped, though I had a feeling it wasn’t because of my great bandages, but because he was nearly bled out. He looked half dead, yet was still breathing.

The cops were nearly here. I had to decide. Go or stay? If they found me with a bleeding cop, I was in trouble. If I took off and Rick remembered that I was here, I was in trouble. If Jodi had heard me while I applied dressings, I was in trouble. If I had left prints somewhere, I was in trouble. I wiped my fingerprints off of his phone, but people touched things all the time that they didn’t remember. No matter what I did, I wasn’t going to get the big meal I needed anytime soon. My stomach growled hard, cramping. I was light-headed. Blue lights flashed through the trees and bushes that covered the windows, growing closer. Decide! I told myself.

Beast does not run, Beast said to me, miffed that I hadn’t figured that out myself.

“Yeah,” I muttered. “Right.” I picked up the phone and spoke into it. “Anyone there?”

“Who is this?” Jodi demanded over the sound of sirens.

“Jane Yellowrock. Who is this? Jodi?”

“What are you doing on this call?”

“Saving a man’s life. What are you doing on it?”

“Stay put,” she said, all business, her tone cop-demanding.

Beast bristled. “Not going anywhere,” I said. Beast huffed with insult. “I see the lights. I’m going to the front door. Tell them not to shoot me.”

Jodi gave a creditable snarl and Beast went silent at the sound.

I stepped to the door and pushed open the screen, standing in the doorway with my hands raised high, open palms visible, if they could see them beneath the blood. The first two cars swept down the short cul-de-sac and swung into the drive. The next car and ambulance bumped into the yard, tires sinking into loamy soil, headlights bouncing up and down, over me. The car doors opened, revealing cops drawing weapons. Beast snarled in warning.

“Do not fire,” Jodi shouted, tumbling from her unmarked. “Repeat, do not fire! Don’t move, Yellowrock. Keep your hands where we can see them.” Like that hadn’t occurred to me.

Jodi and her shadow, Herbert, reached the small porch, Herbert’s hand on his gun butt, eagerness in his eyes. “He’s inside,” I said. “I did what I could for him but he’s in bad shape.”

Jodi pushed past me. Herbert said, “Looks to me like you mighta put him there.” Jodi cursed, I assumed at the sight of Rick. I stepped aside for two stout EMTs and their stretcher.

“He needs blood,” I said, my arms still overhead. “You guys carry units in this state?”

“No,” the fatter of the two said, setting down his gear. “But we got volume expanders and if he needs faster transport, the choppers all got blood.” He took a look at Rick and at the blood on the floor and swore.

“Call the chopper in,” Jodi said. “Get ’em here fast.”

“Yeah. You ain’t kidding,” he said, pulling his portable radio and making the call.

No one was watching me, so I put my arms down and stepped into the corner. The EMTs were fast, starting IV lines, taking blood pressure. Herbert was walking around, his thumbs in his belt, looking the place over. Jodi was talking to the medics, asking the kinds of questions a cop asked in the field, questions medical professionals had no answers for. Questions that cops asked when one of their own was injured in the line of duty. If I hadn’t already figured out that Rick was an undercover cop, that would have decided it. He was spying on the vamps for NOPD. Did Troll know his relative was a cop?

It occurred to me that I had no car here, no visible means of transportation. I’d have to lie about how I got here when they questioned me. I’d have to tell the cops that I arrived with Rick. Or walked. The first lie would be easily disproved, the second wasn’t likely. I really didn’t want to have to lie to Jodi, especially such a bad lie. When Herbert’s back was turned, I casually slipped out of the house. As soon as the shadows covered me, I broke into a dead run.

I called for a Bluebird Cab on my cell, and was lucky that Rinaldo happened to be off from work. I didn’t expect to be lucky again, and so took extra precautions when I stripped and rinsed my clothes in the bayou. Squatting naked on the bank not far from Fisherman Boulevard Bridge, I was totally exposed in the moonlight, had anyone awake been looking this way instead of toward the flashing lights. I heard several neighbors talking and spotted them, standing on front porches and in the road, not getting closer to the action, but not letting it out of their sights either. I hoped the distraction would keep them from noticing me.

Mosquitoes nipped at me as I worked to get the blood out, and I hoped I was successful before I was drained by insects or attracted every gator within ten miles. When moonlight assured me that my clothes and shoes were mostly blood free, I re-dressed. Dripping, I jogged up Privateer Boulevard in my squishy shoes, keeping to shadows, watching for my cab, watching for anyone who might spot me and then report me to the cops. I was hungry, shaky, sticky with blood and sweat, stinking of bayou, and hot, even with the wet clothing.

I crossed Fisherman Boulevard and was almost back to the Jean Lafitte National Historical Park, my breathing coming harder than I expected, my stomach cramping as if Beast had her claws in me, before I spotted Rinaldo’s cab. I flagged him down and waited, bent over at the waist, huffing and trying to control my hunger before I bit into him for a quick snack. Beast thought that was amusing and sent me images of a big cat attacking from the back of a cab.

“You look like shit, you do,” he said, leaning out the open window, one arm on the door.

I huffed a laugh and tried to stand. My back wanted to spasm, and my legs were trembling. “And you’re a sweet talker, Rinaldo.”

“That what my wife tell me,” he said, sounding increasingly Cajun the better he got to know me. “Lemme guess. You want stop at nearest fast-food joint for half dozen burger and three or two shake.”

“Sounds delicious.” I made it to the car. “I’m wet. Where do you want me to sit?”

“Up front fine. I got towel. What you do, go for a bayou swim? There gator in there, you know.”

I eased into the car and quickly shut the door so the interior lights couldn’t pick out the tinge of bloody red all through my clothes. I rested my head back and sighed, smoothing the edges of the towel to catch the spreading damp. “Home. Food. And not in that order,” I said. Overhead, the moon passed behind clouds, and thunder rumbled in the distance.

Rinaldo made a three-point turn. “Best burgers in state coming up. And boudin balls.”

“I’m not eating anything’s balls,” I said, closing my eyes.

For some reason Rinaldo thought that was funny.

I remembered what they were as soon as I bit into a fried boudin ball—spicy meat and sticky rice, shaped into a ball and fried in lard. They were totally wonderful; I had six, each as big as my fist, and only two double burgers. And two large shakes, one order of fully loaded fries with chili and cheese, and two fried apple pies. I treated Rinaldo to a burger and shake, and let him watch me eat as he drove. He was fascinated.

“Where you keep all that food?”

“I didn’t eat dinner tonight,” I said, shrugging, shoving a handful of fries into my mouth and licking the chili off my fingers. “Fast metabolism.”

“Like a damn race car, you is.”

I chuckled and drained one of the shakes through a straw with a long slurp of satisfaction.

Rinaldo dropped me off down the street from my house and I walked the rest of the way, carrying his towel. I had insisted that I be allowed to wash it for him, taking refuge in manners when I really just wanted to keep him from seeing the thin, washed-out blood soaked into it. He charged me an arm and a leg for the after-midnight fare, cash, and I paid it without demur. I also tipped him well, wanting to keep my safe transportation happy. As it was, if Jodi ever discovered and questioned him, Rinaldo would provide a lot of unusual information to the suspicious cop.