Wayward Soul Read online

  None of this would have happened if she had just followed the rules and hadn’t acted on her feelings for him. Hadn’t taken on a physical body to be with him. If she’d just continued to be the invisible force that helped him follow the life he had mapped out before coming to earth. If she’d just done her job as his spirit guide and ensured he followed his chart instead of becoming romantically involved with him, Owen wouldn’t be accusing her of working with the nasty lycan.

  But he’d be dead.

  He jerked open the door, drawing attention to them. Would these people remember that she and Owen had been a couple? Would they recognize her? Owen sure didn’t.

  “Thought you were off on admin leave, Nash,” the burly officer at the front desk said.

  Owen ignored him and continued dragging her down the hall. Several other officers wolf whistled causing her face to go up in flames. Her embarrassment doubled by the fact that she knew most of the cops making snide remarks personally. They never would have made some of the outrageous comments if they remembered her. One officer, a guy whose wife she considered a close friend, wanted to know if she was a hooker Owen picked up.

  He opened the door to the interview room and shoved her inside. He took off the handcuffs and pulled out one of the chairs.

  “Sit down.”

  Defeated, she sat. She wanted to lash out, to kick and scream. For the first time she had no way of fixing things. Owen wasn’t listening to her and since she was no longer his spirit guide and, therefore, unable to influence his thinking, she was flying blind.

  She watched as he dumped the contents of her duffle bag out. His revolver hit the table, followed by two hunting knives. A box of bullets scattered, several rolling to the floor. Jamie’s two dog whistles were the last items to fall out. Owen turned the bag upright and looked inside.

  “What have we here?” He pulled out a Ziploc bag full of purple flowers. “Is this the stuff you and your boyfriend slipped in my beer?” He opened the bag.

  Zanna sucked in her breath. She jumped up, causing the chair to fall over. “Don’t touch that.”

  “Why.”

  She grimaced. Her mind was reeling with frustration and turmoil—and fear. He already thought she drugged him; if she told him the bag contained a deadly poison, he would be convinced her intentions had been to harm him, even kill him.

  “Answer me. Why don’t you want me to touch the stuff in this bag? What is it?”

  Resigned, she hung her head and let her shoulders drop. “It’s wolfsbane.”

  His eyebrows shot up. “Come again.”

  “It’s a plant called wolfsbane. It’s for th—”

  “For the wolf. I should have known. You’ll forgive me if I don’t take your word for it. Can you at least be honest about one thing—what is your name?”

  She lifted damp eyes to his. “Zanna Seoul.”

  He dropped the flowers back into the bag and then scooped up the other items and tossed them in. “Well, Ms. Seoul, I’m gonna go run your name. I bet this isn’t the first time you and your partner have pulled this little scheme. I suppose it would be asking too much for you to give me his last name as well.”

  How was she supposed to answer that? I’m sorry, but he’s a spirit guide slash werewolf so you won’t find him in your system. Don’t worry, he’ll be along shortly to try and kill you again. Oh, and you probably won’t find me either since I just became human a few hours ago.

  “Not going to tell me? Okay then, you can take the fall for drugging me, robbing me, and breaking into my home.”

  “I didn’t slip anything in your drink. I didn’t rob you. If I was going to rob you, I wouldn’t have wasted my time waking you up.” She walked around the table and placed her hands on his chest. His muscled flexed in response causing hope to burst in her. She pressed on. “Please listen to me. We have to get to Elmwood Lane before it’s too late.”

  Owen leaned forward until he was just a few inches from her nose. His steel-blue eyes pieced through her heart like a razor sharp knife. “You’re insane if you think I’m taking you anywhere. I believe you already gave me some crazy stuff that sent me on one unbelievable trip. What I’m not sure about is why. Why get yourself into a bunch of trouble over me? Because that’s what you’ve done. Drugging, stealing, destruction of private property. You picked the wrong guy.” He turned and headed out the door.

  Frustrated, she drew her foot back and planted a hard kick to the table leg causing it to scrap across the floor. Sharp, stinging spasms shot through her big toe and up her leg. She grabbed the injured foot and started dancing around in a circle. How did humans handled such intense feelings of pain without going crazy? She turned the chair upright, sat, and dropped her head on the table. Time was running out and she was stuck waiting for a man to come to his senses who thought she was nuts. How was she supposed to deal with this Owen, the Owen that didn’t trust or love her? Let alone convince him to believe he was in danger.

  After a few minutes, she heard a low buzzing. The irritating sound made her skin crawl so she covered her ears. The humming intensified, causing a vibrating in her head. Just when she thought she would pull her hair out if the noise didn’t stop, she realized what it was. Through the window on the door, she could see the desk clerk’s guide trying to tell her something. For several seconds, she sat frozen in shock, convinced she was losing it.

  You’re hallucinating; you no longer have to ability to see a spirit guide.

  Slow and steady the buzzing turned to familiar sounds and the word “phone” rang in her head. She jumped up and swung the door open.

  “Phone call!”

  The startled desk clerk almost fell out of her chair. She eyed Zanna up and down. “Excuse me.”

  “I get one phone call. I want to use it.”

  The sound was stronger now. The desk clerk’s spirit guide was using every ounce of persuasion she had to get her charge to let Zanna use the phone. Finally, the officer picked the receiver up and pushed some buttons before turning the base to her.

  “You’ve got one minute.”

  “Thank you.” Zanna said so the clerk could hear, but she aimed it at the spirit guide. The guide nodded and smiled. She dialed nine-one-one. “Yes, I’d like to report a murder in progress at thirteen-thirteen Elmwood Lane.”

  Chapter Five

  Owen slammed his desk drawer. His computer was down so he had to fill out the police report by hand. He jabbed the pencil at the paper, snapping the lead. He jerked open the drawer and pulled out another one, muttering under his breath about crazy women.

  “What’s going on, Nash?” a fellow officer asked as he stalked to Owen’s desk.

  Owen jerked his drawer open and retrieved his fourth pencil of the evening. If one more person asked him what he was doing at the police station, he was going to break their neck.

  “Had an intruder at my house, and I shot a dog that attacked me.”

  “Yeah, I know. I was sent to process the scene and backup animal control in removing the dog. Your bedroom was ransacked, but there was no dead animal.

  “Then, I was driving back to the station, getting ready to go home, when dispatch sent me to investigate the nine-one-one call your jailbird made reporting a murder in progress on Elmwood Lane. Showed up to find a woman being attacked and now I’m stuck here filling out paperwork. Thanks to you.”

  Owen snapped another lead out of his pencil from pushing down too hard. He was only half listening to the other officer. “Uh huh, that’s too bad.”

  The offended officer snorted. “Don’t apologize or anything simply because your whack case caused it.” He turned and stomped down the aisle.

  “Yeah, see you later.” The officer was three desks away before what he said registered with Owen. He jumped up and ran after him. “What did you just say?”

  “I said thanks for letting your looney tooney cause me more work.”

  “Where did you say that attack was?”

  “Thirteen-thirteen Elmwood Lan
e, why?”

  “Son of a—” Owen pushed passed the man and ran down the hall to the interview room. She had been right. He had to find out what was going on. There was no way that thing got up and walked out of his house. Unless what Ms. Seoul said was true and it was a werewolf, which was crazy. He swung the door open to find it was empty. He turned to the desk clerk.

  “Where’s the woman I put in here?”

  “Her brother picked her up. Said she walked out of the clinic where she was being treated and he needed to get her back.”

  “What? When?”

  “Few minutes ago.”

  “And you let her go without finding me?” Owen didn’t wait for a response. He headed for the front door. As he started to push it open, he thought about the stray that was nowhere to be found when animal control arrived to remove it. Where had it gone? There was no way that dog, since he still wasn’t convinced werewolves existed, got up and walked off. Still, whether he believed Ms. Seoul or not, it was better to be cautious, so he retraced his steps and went back to his desk and grabbed the duffle bag full of evidence, and then he stopped and grabbed a fire extinguisher at the front counter.

  Chapter Six

  Panic exploded in Zanna as Jakub dragged her farther away from the police station down the dark sidewalk. There was no one to help her.

  When she saw him standing outside the interrogation room talking to the desk clerk, fear had paralyzed her. Her only thought had been to keep him from hurting more innocent people, it never occurred to her to worry about what he would do to her. Now that reality had set in, she realized if he was enraged enough to march into the police station and get her, she was in big trouble.

  Her mind raced frantically, trying to figure out how to break his hold on her arm and get away from him. She tried to pry his fingers off with her free hand, but it didn’t work. “Let go of me. You tried to kill that woman on Elmwood Lane, didn’t you?” Her voice trembled as she spoke.

  “Unlike you, I’m doing my duty as a good spirit guide. Innocent or not, three people are living that should be dead. I intend to rectify that. I just have to remove you from the equation so that you can’t protect them any longer.”

  Her stomach lurched. She wanted to scream for help but she couldn’t. Two thousand years spent being the protector made it difficult to think of herself as the one who needed to be taken care of. Not to mention the fact that a human would be no match against her abductor. “Why can’t you leave this alone? If you’re that determined to get revenge, then kill me instead.”

  Jakub stopped and turned to face her. He locked her arms behind her back with one of his hands. The fingers from his other hand traced a line along the side of her face to her neck, making her skin crawl. He leaned down, his sinister eyes locked on her lips. Sickened and disgusted at the thought of being kissed by the lycan, she turned her head. Unperturbed, he touched her neck with his tongue, licking up her jaw line until his lips brushed her ear.

  “I do plan on killing you, but not before I take care of my guide’s other victims. First on my list is Lieutenant Nash, since I have no doubt he’ll be barreling out of the police station any minute to come after you.”

  “Hey, jerkface, that’s my prisoner you have.”

  Zanna’s heart skipped a beat at the sound of Owen’s voice. She felt a momentary rush of relief followed by fear. “Owen, get out of here.”

  “You stupid fool.” Jakub’s eyes flashed burnt orange and he let out a deep, rumbling growl. To her horror, his hand transformed into a paw with sharp claws, and he slapped her with enough force to send her sprawling. Zanna’s head smacked the pavement, a cracking sound reverberating off the buildings around them. The side of her face burned like someone was holding a piece of dry ice against her cheek, and she screamed in agony. She raised her hand and felt the deep gouges running along her face.

  “Try that with me now.” Owen’s voice was low and menacing, his teeth bared and his eyes flashing.

  Zanna lifted her head to see Owen drop the duffle bag on the sidewalk seconds before smashing Jakub in the face with the bottom of a fire extinguisher. The lycan's nose crunched as it flattened beneath the cylinder. Jakub staggered backwards, but was still on his feet. He lifted his head and let out a blood curling howl as his mouth and nose started stretching into a wolf’s muzzle. His shape shifting gave Owen an advantage. He drew the extinguisher back as he walked close enough to Jakub to get in another blow. Blood spewed. Zanna cringed at the screeching of the metal canister as it scraped against the lycan’s teeth. He hit the ground with a thud.

  Owen stood over Jakub, his chest heaving, shock evident by the white knuckle grip he had on the extinguisher.

  “Enough games, lady, tell me what’s going on. Is that the thing I shot earlier?” he asked, his eyes still transfixed on the mass of half werewolf half man sprawled on the sidewalk.

  “Yes.”

  “Why is it after you?”

  “It isn’t. It’s after you.”

  Other than the clenching and unclenching of his jaw, Owen seemed to be calm and in complete control after watching a man turn into a werewolf. He turned to look at her and the horror in his eyes broke her heart.

  “How long do we have before it wakes up?”

  “Probably not long. You know, you would have done more damage if you had sprayed him with the fire extinguisher instead of hitting him with it.”

  He turned to her and rolled his eyes. “Right, because he’s a werewolf. I liked my way better. How do I finish him?”

  “You can’t.” Zanna’s voice was strained and unfamiliar even to her. Every inch of her was covered in sweat and she was shaking uncontrollably. Having never had to deal with physical suffering before, the intensity of the pain was about to get the best of her. That combined with her inability to get a grip on her emotions made her feel she was going to jump out of her skin. The whole situation had her mind and body on overload.

  Owen bent down beside her. “Are you all right?” He touched the deep scratches on her face with his trembling hand.

  She tried to focus on what he was saying, but her cheek burned like fire and her heart was racing so fast it felt like her air had been cut off. His blue eyes looked at her with concern. It was only for a second, but she swore there was a glimmer of recognition there.

  “We need to get you some help.”

  She panicked. Help? What did he mean help? “No.” She started shaking her head.

  “No? Those gashes are deep. You need stitches. Let me drive you to the emergency room.”

  “Right and tell them a werewolf attacked me. I can’t risk it. Please, no hospital. Let’s just use your first aid kit to clean it up.”

  “I don’t think that’s going to do any good but it’s your choice.” He unzipped the duffle bag and tossed the extinguisher inside. “Can you walk?”

  She nodded.

  He hooked the bag over his shoulder and helped her stand. They only took a few steps before she collapsed. Owen swung her up into his arms and carried her to his car. He opened the passenger door and helped her in. She heard him pop open the trunk and then close it. He came to the driver’s side and opened the back door, tossing in the duffle bag.

  He jumped in behind the wheel and locked the doors. He opened a white box he must have retrieved from the truck and pulled out a small spray bottle of antiseptic and some gauze. Wordlessly, he sprayed the gauze and touched it to her cheek. She sucked in air through gritted teeth.

  “Sorry.”

  He took an ice pack out and pushed on the middle to activate it. He leaned forward and pressed it to her face. “This will help with the pain and swelling.”

  She covered his hand with hers and leaned her cheek against his palm. “I’m feeling better.”

  His hand on her cheek sent a jolt of heat rushing through her body. The last six months of loving Owen had been the best months of her existence. And that was saying a lot for someone who had been around for more than two thousand years.

/>   The pain in her cheek was forgotten as she leaned toward him and touched her lips to his. He tensed but didn’t pull back. Taking this as an encouraging sign, she pressed her lips tighter to his. Joy exploded in her when he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer.

  More than anything, Zanna wanted to give herself over to the kiss, to lose herself in his touch, but time was against them. Reluctantly, she pulled back. “We really do need to get going. There’s something we have to do.”

  He cleared his throat. “And that is?”

  “He’s going to go after a woman who lives on Redford Road. We have to save her.” It might be too late for the lady on Elmwood, but she wasn’t going to let Jakub kill anyone else. And that included Owen.

  “Okay.” He started the car and rocketed away.

  She was startled that she didn’t have to argue with him. “Okay?”

  He shot her a sideways look. “It seems you were right about the woman on Elmwood being attacked. One of the other officers got there in time to stop it thanks to your emergency call.”

  “She’s not dead?” A big weight lifted from her shoulders.

  “No.”

  “Thank you.”

  He kept his eyes on the road. “For what?”

  “For finally believing me. For trusting me.”

  He snorted. “I wouldn’t go that far.”

  She cocked her head to the side. “Okay, then. For not hauling me back into the police station and throwing me in a cell.”

  “I still might do that. You have a lot of explaining to do, so start talking.”

  Chapter Seven

  “You expect me to believe this cock and bull story?” Did she honestly expect him to accept that werewolves, spirit guides, and supernatural powers existed? Surely he would have seen evidence of such things before tonight, if that were true. Next she would be telling him that Santa Clause existed, and the tooth fairy left quarters under pillows in place of lost teeth.