17 Masking the Stench

Before we left my room, Jensen made me shower, not once, but twice. I figure, at this rate, my skin was going to rebel and start flaking right off me. There was a time I was not so self-conscious about my body odor, but with as many showers as I have had over the last month, I was starting to get a complex. Already, I had nearly matched the number of showers since coming here with what I usually took in a whole year. However, those were taken during times that were not always by choice, but by circumstance.

After I had showered, twice, he gave me his jacket to wear around my shoulders.

“No, thank you,” I told him, shoving it back in his hands.

“That wasn’t a request,” he glowered at me. He pushed the jacket back into my hands. “Put it on. My scent clings to it, and it will mask yours.”

“I just had two showers. Certainly, I only smell like soap by now,” I argued. It wasn’t that his scent was terrible, though something was nagging me at the back of my skull that made me revolt against the idea of his scent wrapping itself around me.

Jensen frowned at me, his brows slanting at harsh angles. “You know, this is not going to work if you keep arguing with me at every turn. In case you have forgotten, I am trying to protect you!” His face had grown taut, his mouth pinched. The pallor of his skin had me a little concerned as ashy as it had become.

I scanned his features, his eyes flitting occasionally to the door. “You are afraid this isn’t going to work, aren’t you?” The thought made my stomach turn over, and I almost felt the need to wretch. My hand moved to rub at my forehead, trying to ease my own anxiety in light of his. “This is all wrong,” I muttered, pacing across the floor of my bedroom. Without stopping my movements, I asked, “What is the worse that could happen if I don’t go?”

Jensen let his eyes follow me without moving his head, a scowl growing deeper on his face as I asked the question. “Well, let’s see. Hunt demands you in exchange for his help and, if Kallan lets him take you, he defiles you in the worst ways imaginable. The man despises humans, and I imagine he will take out the disgust he has of your kind in rather abusive ways. You will more than likely not survive his assault.”

Okay, that made my stomach churn more viciously. “Okay, I get it,” I whispered, trying to hold back what little of the sandwich I ate from making another appearance. Think of riding a motorcycle, I kept telling myself, trying desperately to tune out the picture that Jensen was painting for me.

“Do you? Because that is the tame version. The other version is the one that will haunt my dreams if we don’t get out of here.”

Jensen once more held his jacket out before me to take. Looking at it, it struck me once more how I just couldn’t bring myself to wrap his jacket around my shoulders…to wrap his scent around me. I stared at it as if it held some meaning for me, and Jensen slowly pulled it away from me.

“I’m sorry, I can’t explain it-”

Jensen smiled sadly. “I can.”

The room went silently before a thought occurred to me. “Ramuel,” I whispered the name into the room.

Jensen frowned. “What was that?”

“Ramuel,” I said a little louder as if it became more of a solution with the pitch of my voice.

Jensen gave me an odd look. “The young man marrying Tala?” His gaze flicked concern before he smirked at me. “Don’t tell me you wish to thank him for caring for your charge.”

“No, no…not that,” I replied a bit scattered in thought. Having moved to the window, I now stared out into the moonlit night. “He made it into your inner sanctum without any of you noticing.”

“Yes, but I don’t see…” His words trailed off as the meaning of what I said settled in. “Of course! The spray he wore.”

“A spray,” I asked, turning back to look at him.

There was that look that suggested he was already planning his next steps. “Yes, yes. It neutralized his odor. He sprayed himself down every so often to evade our ability to scent him.” He waved his arms in the air before him to emphasize his meaning.

“Did he have more on him,” I asked, hopeful.

He watched my face as his memory dredged up the information he was looking for, his fingers idly dancing against the worn leather of his jacket. “You know, I think they may have found some on him.” For a moment, a smile danced around the corners of his mouth before he spun around on his heels and headed for the door. “Wait here,” he called to me as he exited the room and shut the door firmly behind him.

While he was away, I paced the span of the window watching for any signs of Jensen or daybreak. Though the lycans had managed to bring electricity back to their kingdoms and packs, I had lived so long with little exposure to electricity and clocks. As a result, we had become acquainted with the movements of the heavens above to tell time. If I had to wager, we only had about three to four hours before the sun would be licking at the night sky.

A small group of men walked towards the treeline from the backside of the house just below my window. The small shiver that ran up my spine was both delicious and dangerous. Kallan was down there, flanked by two men that had been here from the beginning. Two men who I believed to be part of his pack.

Still, I shrank away from the window and into the shadows of the room. The two men with him moved ahead of him and into the trees, but Kallan hang back a few seconds. His head turned to the side as though he was listening for something. With my breath held, I saw him lift his head and inhale deeply. A sad smile played at the corners of his mouth as he dipped his head in front of him, hiding his facial features from my purview.

The man was gorgeous, and I worried that he was starting to grow on me. My heart ached at that moment to go below and smooth the sadness from his features. Has the man ever truly smiled? It was a curious thought, and I felt a small traitorous tug to be the one to make him smile.

Keeping his head bent, he held his hand up beside him. From this distance, it appeared to be his middle three fingers held tightly against each other. He continued to hold them up as he disappeared into the trees behind the other two men. It was an odd hand gesture, one that I would have to ask Jensen about…if the man ever showed up!

The knock at my door made me jump. Swinging around, I stared at the door. Would Jensen knock considering the time crunch we were up against? And what if I answered the door to be faced with Hunt?

My feet glided slowly across the floor, trepidation settling in my gut. When I made it across the room, I pressed both my hands and an ear against the door. “Who is it,” I whispered, barely audible to my own ears.

“Jensen sent me,” a small, feminine voice responded.

Call me paranoid, but… “How do I know Jensen sent you?” One could never be too cautious.

The female on the other side of the door tittered with laughter, very soft and light as though she didn’t want to be caught. “He thought you might ask that,” she responded after a few moments. “He said to remind you of that motorcycle ride and, if you still want it, to get a move on before you no longer have that option.”

The thought of a ride on a motorcycle dispensed any thoughts of paranoia I might have. Any vehicle that still mechanically ran in these times were older, antiquated vehicles that did not fall victim to EMF bombs that our own government rained down upon its citizens as a means of flushing out the supernatural that existed around us. It was a farce, and it only worked in putting us at a disadvantage.

And, it only left military vehicles and older vehicles operational. So, to ride a motorcycle seemed like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. It would sure beat the hell out of riding in the back of an old military truck when Tala and I had been taken. Why did that seem like ages ago?

I pulled the door open so fast I nearly wrenched my shoulder out of joint. How my arm managed to heal itself so quickly was beyond me, but there was a part of me buried deep that wanted to thank Laklan for whatever was in that shot. However, it was still buried very deep.

The young woman before me was as beautiful as any of them here. Her pale blond hair and hazel eyes were stunning, and her demeanor and facial features seemed so much like the man who had only left my room a few hours ago.

“Nanette,” I guessed. Though she looked like an adult, there was something very youthful about her appearance.

She smiled brightly at me. “Yes,” she responded, looking thoughtful. “How did you know my name?”

“It was just a guess,” I said as I shrugged my shoulders. “He seems very fond of you.”

Nanette rolled her eyes heavenward and sighed. “He can be overprotective at times, but I know he loves me.” The similarities were too much to miss, even down to the mannerisms.

“Yeah, dads can be like that sometimes,” I said. The memories of my own dad started to wash over me, a sadness creeping in that I had all but banished outside of those intimate moments at night when I first lost him. And, like I always did when the memories came back to haunt me at inappropriate times, I squashed it down with a cough meant to disguise my discomfort. It never disguised anything, truth be told. Not sure why I bothered.

“Here,” Nanette said, shoving the items she had clutched in her arms at me as she closed the door with her foot.

Items of clothing spilled out of my arms as she roughly deposited them without much care. A bottle thudded to the ground and I stumbled back at the force she used when thrusting the items into my arms.

“Whose clothes?”

“Yours now,” she smirked at me sweetly. “They were some of my things that I didn’t have a chance to wash.”

That nearly made me gag. “You want me to wear your dirty laundry?”

She looked at me from head to toe and wrinkled her nose. “From my understanding, this was an upgrade,” she giggled. “Oh, don’t worry,” she nudged me gently. “Even though my dad wanted the dirtiest clothes of the lot, I grabbed something lightly worn. With any luck, that spray will work perfectly as planned.”

That reminded me of the bottle that fell from my grasp. As I was reaching to pick up the bottle from the floor, a familiar voice drifted from the hallway beyond the closed door. It made me freeze where I stood, an icy chill running over my skin.

“So this is where the little minx dwells…for now,” Hunt said.

“Sir, I don’t think-”

“That’s right! You don’t think. You do whatever I tell you to do.” The man’s voice roared into the space like thunder, so much so I felt it vibrating down to my toes. The man’s strength was terrifying, and this was the first time I was willing to admit it.

“Yes sir,” came the timid voice of a man that was all too used to getting berated.

“She’s not alone,” Hunt mocked. I could feel his words trying to penetrate my brain, as though he were seeking to get into my head. He chuckled. “She has still green, young lycan with her. Pity,” he remarked. “I was hoping to claim my prize.”

I held my breath, but Nanette’s face was screwed up in insult. “I am not still green,” she muttered quietly.

To my own eyes, she looked as mature as any of them. But, there was something about her that did not hold the same experience that the rest of them had. However, she saw things differently.

I held my breath, waiting for them to move away from the door. Instead, the sound of his hands moving over the door panel made my body tense. The huge inhale of breath made bile rise to the back of my throat.

“Hmm,” he said, pleasure enunciating the rumbling sound he made at the back of his throat. “Soon, my little prize. You will be mine soon. I will have you in all ways speakable, and some that cannot be named.” I could almost hear him lick his lips, the disturbing words exciting him more than I would have thought possible. “I will tear you apart, consume your spirit, and leave you broken. Then, you will bear my mark…a broken servant that will see to my every whim. And we will bring Kallan to his knees.”

My stomach lurched, his laughter mocking me from the other side of the door. I remained in my spot, too paralyzed to move. For a split second, I was torn. If I left the room, I could very well run into that beast. If I didn’t…well, that was too much to fathom.

The sound of his hands gliding down the door echoed in my head moments before nearly silently footsteps shifted down the hall. It was clear he wanted me to know he was gone. Why else would I hear a lycan move?

A few more minutes passed and Nanette sidled up beside me. Placing one of her arms about my shoulders, she muttered something about getting dressed and dousing myself with spray. Numbly, I did what she asked.

“Dad said he would meet us at the garage,” she offered. Her voice was soft and gentle like she was speaking to a child. It rankled me a bit, and I may have said something had I not been so rattled. Instead, I simply nodded my head.

After a moment of silence, I noticed that she was watching me intently. “What is it,” I asked, curious as to why she was inspecting me so closely.

“My dad is sticking his neck out for you,” she said. I started to respond and she held up her hand. “I get it, I really do. I just-just take care of him for me. He’s all I got.”

Looking at her, I could almost see my little moon standing there. I gave a short, brief nod. It was the least I could do.

“Okay, come on before everyone comes back.” She reached for the doorknob.

“You sure this spray works,” I asked after I had coated myself in the spray.

“Oh, you still stink,” she said, smiling innocently at me. “But the scent that makes you you is so faint you would miss it if you were not looking for it.”

“Great,” I grumbled.

Nanette grabbed my hand, pulling me towards the door. “Time to put it to the test!”

Great! A comedian! Taking a deep breath, I stepped out of the room.