"Dr. Cornick," Tony greeted him like an old friend-I supposed that cops might see a lot of emergency room doctors. Then something about the wariness of everyone in the room clued him in.
"Samuel needs to have the shield of police business to hide behind," I said before he could ask if Samuel was a werewolf, too.
Tony frowned, taking a careful look at the people in the room-avoiding eye contact. "All right," he said slowly. "You're sure everything will get back to normal?"
I started to shrug, but nodded my head instead. "As normal as it gets."
"Fine." He looked at Samuel. "Tell me that you're not a danger to your patients."
I waited anxiously for a smart-ass comment, but Samuel was tired, too. He only said, "I'm not a danger to my patients."
"All right," Tony said. "All right. Dr. Cornick, if anyone asks about this, just tell them it was a police matter you were helping in." He took out his wallet and pulled out a card. "Give them my number if you need to."
Samuel took the card. "Thank you."
Then Tony turned back to Adam. "Mr. Hauptman," he said. "Mercy tells me that I ought to speak with you first on matters concerning werewolves."
Adam rubbed his face tiredly. It took him so long to speak that I worried. Finally he said, in an almost civil tone. "Yes. Did Mercy give you my number?"
"We didn't get that far."
Adam collected himself and managed a small smile that made him look like a hungry tiger. Tony took a discreet step back. "I'm not carrying my cards tonight, but if you call my office, I'll instruct them to give you my cell phone number-or Mercy usually knows how to get in touch with me."
My ankle was just sprained. Stefan left while Tony was talking with Adam. No one but me seemed to notice. I don't know if he did some vampire thing, or that no one else cared.
Adam wanted me to stay at his house. But he had half the local pack, part of the Montana pack, and Kyle staying at his house. I had no intention of joining the crowd.
After the others left for Adam's house, Samuel carried me into my battered trailer and started toward my bedroom, but I didn't want to sleep. Not ever.
"Can you take me to the office, instead?" I asked.
He still wasn't speaking much, but he obediently switched directions and took me into the tiny third bedroom that hummed with various bits of electronics.
He set me in the chair, then dropped to his knees in front of me. His hands were shaking when he closed them on my knees and pulled them apart so he could fill up the space between. His body was hot as he pressed himself against me and buried his face in my neck.
"I knew you'd come," he whispered and the power of his wolf ruffled my hair as it rushed over me. "I was so worried. And then… and then the wolf came. Adam kept control-he tried to help me, but I was in a worse state than Ben, who had been there far longer. I am losing control of my wolf, I'm a danger to you. I told my father that as soon as you are well, I will return to Montana."
I held him with my good arm. "Demons aren't good for a werewolf's control."
"Of the three of us there," he told my neck, "I had the least control."
That wasn't true. I'd been there and seen him still fighting when Ben had given up entirely to the wolf. But before I took up that argument, I realized something.
"That church is less than half a mile from the hospital," I told him. "Uncle Mike told me the demon's presence causes violence anywhere near him-and the police records confirm that. When Tony worked it up for me, we found that the area of effect was over three miles in diameter. You've been fighting the demon since the night I first ran into Littleton. It had Ben for a few days-you, it's been working on for weeks."
He stilled, thinking about it.
"The night you lost control after that accident with the baby," I said. "It wasn't you, it was the demon."
The arms of my chair creaked a protest under his hands. He took a deep breath of my scent and then pulled back a little so he could look me in the face. Very slowly, giving me plenty of time to pull away, he kissed me.
I thought I might love Adam. Samuel had hurt me once before-very badly. I knew that he might only want me now for the same reason he had wanted me then. Even so, I couldn't pull away.
I had come so close to losing him.
I returned his kiss with interest, leaning into his body and threading my fingers through his fine hair. It was Samuel who ended the kiss.
"I'll get you some cocoa," he said, leaving me in my chair.
"Sam?" I said.
He stopped at the door, his back to me and his head lowered. "I'll be all right, Mercy. For tonight, just let me get us both some cocoa."
"Don't forget the marshmallows," I told him.
CHAPTER 14
"He's not come to trial yet?"
"No," Stefan sipped at his tea, which he had requested. I hadn't known vampires could drink tea. "How's the ankle?"
I made a rude noise. "My ankle is fine." Which wasn't strictly true, but I wasn't going to let him change the subject. "It took them only a day to bring you to trial and it's been two weeks for Andre."
"Weeks that Andre spends in the cells beneath the seethe," Stefan said mildly. "He's not out vacationing. As for how long it is taking, I'm afraid that is my fault. I've been in Chicago to see what I can ferret out about Andre's activities there. To make sure that Littleton was the only person he managed to turn."
"I thought Andre didn't have enough control to turn his people into vampires."
Stefan set his tea on the table and gave me an interested look. "Rachel said you'd been over to visit. I hadn't realized how much you learned."
I rolled my eyes at him. "I grew up with werewolves, Stefan, intimidation isn't going to work. Tell me how Andre managed to turn a sorcerer when he can't turn one of his minions."
His face lit up in one of his generous smiles. "I don't know. I'll tell you what I do know. Cory Littleton has been flirting with evil since he was a very young boy. His apartment in Chicago — which Andre has paid for up until next December-had a secret room I sniffed out. It was full of interesting things like black wax candles and books on ancient ceremonies that would have been best left uncatalogued. I burned them, and the notebooks he kept his journals in-written in mirror writing of all things. At least it wasn't in Greek."
"Does Andre know how Littleton became a sorcerer? Could he make more of them?" asked Samuel, his sleep-roughened voice emerging from the hallway.
"Hello, Samuel," Stefan said. Medea came out of the hallway shadows first, meowing sharp little complaints as she trotted across the kitchen floor and hopped onto Stefan's lap.
Samuel followed, half dressed and sporting a day's growth of beard. Samuel hadn't been himself since Littleton captured him-or maybe since that night he told me about the baby his girlfriend had aborted. His temper was shorter and he was too serious-when I tried to bring up the subject of that kiss we'd shared, he wouldn't discuss it. I worried about him.
"Does Andre know how to create a sorcerer?"
Stefan nodded his head slowly. "According to Littleton 's journals he does. Littleton told him."
Samuel pulled out a chair and spun it around so he sat on it backwards. "Was it something about Littleton being a sorcerer that allowed him to survive being turned?"
Medea batted Stefan's hand and instead of picking up his cup, he rubbed her behind her ears. She purred and settled more firmly on his lap.
"I don't know," Stefan answered finally. "I'm not certain even Andre knows. He fed off Littleton for several years before turning him. I don't think that he has any more Littletons waiting in the wings, though. It's not all that easy to find someone willing to sell his soul to the devil."