Free Otherworld Nights by Kelley Armstrong Page B

raced out the door.
    I didn’t bother checking the gift shop. Elena had already decreed the water there too expensive. Jeremy and I might have had some lean times during my childhood, but Elena knew what it was liketo wear three sweaters all winter because you couldn’t afford a coat. Even if she could now afford to buy the whole damned gift shop, she wouldn’t give them three bucks for water that cost half that down the block.
    Normally, I respect that, but this was one time when I wished to hell she’d just spend the damned money.
    I strode out the front doors, stopped, and inhaled. A couple glowered when they had to drop hands to walk around me. I scanned the road, sampling the air. Finally it came. Elena’s faint scent on the wind. I hurried down the steps.
    There was a convenience store on the corner, but Elena’s trail crossed the road and headed down the very service lane where I’d waited for Cain that afternoon. What the hell was wrong with the shop on the corner? Was the water ten cents cheaper three blocks away? Goddamn it, Elena!
    Even as I cursed her, I knew I was really angry with myself. I should have warned her about the mutt. If I’d honestly believed I could keep her in my sights twenty-four hours a day, then I was deluded. The late hour wouldn’t stop Elena from running out for water. She was a werewolf; she didn’t need to worry about muggers and rapists. But a pissed-off mutt twice her size?
    I broke into a jog.
    The moment I stepped into the alley, I smelled him. He must have been lying in wait outside the hotel, formulating a plan. Then his quarry had sailed out the front doors … and waltzed straight into the nearest dark laneway.
    By the time he got over the shock at his good fortune, he’d lost his chance to catch her in the lane. She’d exited, walked a block, then … cut through an alley.
    Goddamn it!
    I raced to the alley and then pulled up short. Cain stood at the far end, his back to me, gaze fixed on Elena across the road.
    I circled to the next road, hoping to cut him off. The streets and sidewalks were empty. Our hotel was in the business section of town. That had looked good when I’d picked it online—surrounded by restaurants and other conveniences. But we arrived to discover those conveniences weren’t nearly so convenient when they closed at five, as the offices emptied.
    When I peeked around the corner, I saw yet another quiet street, vacant except for a lone shopper gazing at the display of a closed clothing store. I had to do a double take to make sure it was Elena. It certainly looked like her—a tall, slender woman in jeans and sneakers, her pale blond hair hanging loose down the back of her denim jacket. But window-shopping? At a display of women’s business clothes? This honeymoon was boring her even more than I’d feared.
    As she studied the display, her gaze kept sliding to the right. I squinted to see what was drawing her attention, but the streetlights turned the glass into a mirror, reflecting … reflecting Cain.
    She knew he was there. I exhaled in relief. The sound couldn’t have been loud enough for Elena to hear, but she went still, then pivoted just enough to see me. She jerked her attention back to the window and motioned, palm out, for me to stay put.
    A quick sequence of charade moves warned me there was a mutt in that alley, but she would handle it and I could settle into backup mode. Then, mid-motion, she stopped and gave a slow smile, her teeth glinting in the darkness. Seeing that smile, I knew what she was thinking before she glanced over, her lips forming the word.
    “Play?”
    My grin answered.

    No game is fair—or much fun—when one of the parties doesn’t realize he’s playing. So Elena started by drumming her fingers against her leg, her head twisting his way, a subtle hint that she knew Cain was there and was growing impatient waiting for his next move.
    She glanced over her right shoulder, hair sweeping back as her face