Page 16 of Loup Garou

“Lie to me about it, Lindsay, and I swear I’ll kill you myself and save the rest of the underworld the trouble. Every day I worry that it’s the day those fucks will win. I worry you’ll disappear for days again—only this time when we find you there will be no bringing you back to life, that your heart won’t restart, your body won’t mend.”

Desperate for her to stop, I did the only thing I could think to do. I begged. “Please, Gina.”

She froze and I wasn’t sure if it was the please or the desperation on my face. I didn’t care. A puzzled look came over her. “Why aren’t you yelling at me and making me dive out of the way of lightning strikes that you swear you can’t create yet always seem to happen when you’re pissed?” As she stared at me, I watched it hit her. Her eyes widened and she looked from me to Exavier and back again several times before blushing. Since Gina wasn’t one who was prone to being embarrassed, I was at a loss as to how to help. If worse came to worst, I’d plead insanity. With the talk that had been going on directly in front of Exavier, I doubted he’d question me on it. Hell, he’d probably have me committed himself.

Gina ran a hand through her auburn hair and nodded, doing her best to look calm and collected. It didn’t work. “Oh, right. Yes. Umm, you have someone new here. Someone, umm… I’m sorry. You didn’t get a chance to tell yourfriendthat I moonlight as an actress on a paranormal soap and you help me with my lines, did you?”

I choked back a sob as a tear fell down my cheek. “No. I didn’t mention that.”

“Right, so he probably thinks we’re in a cult and worship the devil or something.” She smiled wide at Exavier. “Sorry about using you as an extra. You did surprisingly well by, umm, doing nothing to interfere. Way to fade into the background. Thanks.”

“No problem,” he said in a low tone.

“Thanks for clearing that up for me, Gina.” I wanted to run to her and hug her but leaving the safety of Exavier’s arms wasn’t an option for me just yet. “He already thinks I’m odd enough. We need to quit watching scary movies and get lives.”

Gina nodded slowly. “Yeah, no movies. Lay off those movies, mmm-hmm.” She pointed behind her. “I’ve got a self-defense class to instruct. I really think you should stop in. We can practice for the heck of it. Run more lines. I could even show your friend some stuff if you want. I do think you should stop in, though. Okay?”

I nodded.

“Take care. I should probably warn you that Jay’s headed over here. The second Myra said you were here I guess he freaked out. Umm, you know how much he hates to miss out on me running my lines and all.” A nervous chuckle escaped her. She went to leave and paused. “You know, your friend looks really familiar.”

“I will. I promise. And I agree, Exavier looksveryfamiliar.”

On her way out, she stopped. Her eyes widened as she stared at Exavier. “Ohmygod, you’re…umm…holy shit.”

“Huh? Oh, yeah. I forgot to tell you that he’s with a band, Loup Garou, I think Myra said, and that he started off here with the idea I’d be able to help out but I’m guessing he’s seen the light by now.”

Gina’s green eyes stayed locked on Exavier as she spoke to me. “Honey, you really need to stop using that two-hundred disc player or start putting the artist’s names in the memory bank so it displays something other than the disc number.”

“Why? I have you, the walking book of useless facts on every artist out there. And I can’t forget, the master of my mix CDs. How you dig through and find what you need out of that mess is beyond me.”

She smiled. “Stop throwing away the cases and inserts, Lindsay. You’d be able to see photos of the bands then. Better yet, turn on a music video channel or attend the damn concerts we try to take you to all the time.”

Sighing, I did my best to work the kink out of my neck without knocking Exavier out. “I can’t stand the clutter. I’m a freak. You tell me so all the time. I didn’t throw them all away. I kept the ones from that one group. Yeah.”

“Be more specific.”

Grunting, I shook my head. “Gina, you are doing your best to point out the fact that I’m not only terrible with names, I also suck shit at pairing up band names to their songs. And I have yet to know the actual song title of anything. In my defense, once I hear it, I instantly know what feels right dance-wise with it.”

“At least he’ll know you’re not an obsessed fan who’s out to bear his love child.”

Pulling out of Exavier’s arms, I slipped my sweatshirt on and laughed. “I think he’s safe from either of those things occurring. For one, obsessed people are scary. I’d never put someone on the other side of that and play stalk them when I know what it’s like. And secondly…well, you know.”

Gina’s face fell. “Oh honey, I didn’t mean to bring up having children. I just was using it as an example…umm…shit. I didn’t mean to drag that up, Lindsay. I swear.”

“No biggie.”

Liar.

The attack three years ago had robbed something precious from me and left me unable to ever have children. I no longer dreamt of a house full of children, a husband who loved me and a white picket fence. No, my dreams nowadays ran more towards nightmares than anything else.

Gina rushed towards me and began helping me re-snap the buttons on the legs of my pants. “Lindsay, I am so sorry. I wasn’t thinking. It was a typical me-being-me moment. I’d like to yank my foot out of my mouth. The…umm…accident in Europe was hard enough to go through, but me tossing something you want so bad but can’t ever…shit, shutting up now. Sorry.”

I dropped my voice low enough that I hoped Exavier couldn’t hear me. “I’m fine, Gina. I’ve had three years to get used to the idea that I’ll never be someone’s mommy. Don’t keep apologizing. I’m good. Really. Besides, I could be wrong but I think I need to find the right guy before I even dredge up the fact that I can’t have his children. Don’t you?”

She kissed my cheek and winked at me. “Umm, what routine did the ladies do today?”

“What do they always do?”

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