Page 4 of Watcher's Omega

Eamon

Hemlock Memorial Hospital, Hemlock Mountain

My fingers trembled as I took my mate’s handsome face in my hands again. He was tall for a wolf shifter. Taller than most of the wolf alphas I’d met. He wasn’t quite as tall as the dragon alphas back in London. I wondered if the wild born thing he mentioned had anything to do with his height. The wolf at our feet wagged his tail again. He couldn’t help it. He was such a happy, good boy. I kissed Rhomas again, breathing in his scent to soothe myself. I tried not to let the fireworks attack play out through my thoughts. Soon, I’d recount it all for the security guard but for now…. I bit him before I lost my nerve. I bit him with a nurse and a guard watching and sweet as honey clear, magical fluid flooded into my mouth and down my throat. He tasted like wild honeysuckle and the sweet finds of nature. Like grass and fur and safety. I didn’t know safety had a taste until his magic oozed into my mouth and filled my head up with all his knowledge that even I couldn’t find words to explain.

My wolf reveled in the knowledge pouring over from our mate’s memories. He understood all the little things that wild wolves knew in a way I’d never be able to put my finger on. Rhomas read the forest the same way some people read books. The air itself whispered to him in a language most didn’t speak. His service wolf, Jolly, spoke that language too even if he looked more like a happy dog than a wolf who could survive on his own in the wild.

“You wouldn’t want to meet him on my bad side,” Rhomas said as I lapped up the last of the clear magical fluid seeping from his claiming gland. “Or yours.”

Phantom shrieks played through my head. Memories of how I found Glenn burnt and freaking out. Rhomas kissed my forehead. He was the best door watcher on Hemlock Mountain. I opened my mouth to beg him not to let me lose my best friend but I knew I didn’t have to. He’d no more let Glenn die on purpose than he’d let Jolly perish. He kissed me one more time and pulled his shirt back on. His dick was still hard, but his senses were already tuning me out and tuning in to the world around him.

Soon, I was left with just Guard Tantra. She flashed me a sad smile and motioned toward a padded bench against the opposite wall.

“Or we could step outside if you need a smoke,” she offered.

“I don’t even know where my vape went,” I shook my head.

Crossing the room, I sank onto the padded bench. Its stitchwork depicted a scene of wolves running up a mountain path with a big dragon flying overhead. If you didn’t know the story of Frost and Juda and how they were true-mates you might think the dragon planned on having a wolf buffet for lunch.

Guard Tantra kept her eyes on me, and I almost told her that I didn’t know hospital guards were allowed to take statements of criminal activity. Only, I knew better. Here on Hemlock Mountain, a guard was a guard. They were all employed through the pack and each had as much or as little authority as the next.

“Do you want to tell me what happened? I understand it may feel like you need more time but the quicker your statement is given the more watertight it will appear before a jury if the case elevates that far,” Guard Tantra said.

“We’re here from London,” I said.

“I’ve noted your accent,” she said, nodding to her tiny little leatherbound notebook.

“Glenn received a scholarship to come and study at the vampire lab here on the mountain. He’s half vampire and wants to use his medical degree to further build upon the work of Bane and Lee Hemlock-Knight. His parents wouldn’t let him come alone. I know that sounds insane. We’re in our thirties but his family is very old-fashioned. Not that you’d know that from…”

“I’m not here to judge,” Guard Tantra said. “I’m here for the facts as you recall them. I’m not here to phone anyone’s parents. Unless your friend wants his family informed no guard or hospital staff is going to make that call.”

“I’m his emergency contact here,” I said, relief flooding through my body. “Anyway, they wouldn’t let Glenn move alone. I don’t know why they thought two was better than one, but they did. So we have a little apartment. He does his lab sciencey stuff and I work as a costume designer at the local theater.”

“You should probably get to the point. She probably thinks you want her to write our memoir at this point,”my wolf rolled his eyes inside his inner sanctum.

“We went to a party tonight up on the roof top of our building. He went off to talk to a friend alone and I stayed and had a glass of wine with some of the actors from the theater. Ishouldn’t have said that, huh? Now you think I was too drunk to know anything.”

“I’m not here to judge,” Guard Tantra said.

“Anyway. There were these two guys there who were obviously drunk. The elf who owns the building told them to go inside and sleep it off. They did. For a while at least. Then they came back upstairs. Glenn and his friend were back and they were getting belligerent. The guy with him – a tall dude with blonde hair, wolf- I …. I can’t remember his name…”

“What about him?” the guard asked, scribbling away in her secret little notebook.

“Well, he got annoyed with them. They kept setting off fireworks and we’re within city limits. A fight broke out and one of the guys launched the dragon candle or whatever they’re called at the blonde and well it hit something – the trashcan maybe? It caught on fire and everyone went crazy! When we made it down to the street, I realized the blonde hadn’t brough Glenn with him. So, I went back up. Everyone was screaming not to but--- I had to, you know?” I blinked, wishing that my mate could be in two places at once. “He was all burnt up on his left arm and up across his collarbone.”

“Was the man with the firework aiming for the trashcan?” Guard Tantra asked me.

“No, he was aiming it at the blonde.”

“The one your friend hooked up with?” she asked.

“They’re friends,” I said, still trying to protect Glenn’s privacy.

“Look, I don’t care what your friend does. It doesn’t matter if the firework was aimed at his boyfriend or his grandpa but if it was aimed at a person it’s something we need to know.”

“The wolf with the firework aimed it at the blonde,” I nodded.

She scribbled for a while longer and thanked me for my time. Then I was alone again in the ambulance bay. I tuned into my half-open link with Rhomas. Only his emotions were flat and unreadable. Sure, he was working but I expected to find something there. We’d just met and Glenn was on the operating table. Didn’t that merit some emotional response?