Jamil fell into step beside me. "Why not try what she was suggesting?"
I walked carefully, paying a lot more attention to my feet than I usually did. "Because outside of raising the dead, I'm still an amateur. It will probably take less time for us to walk to the lupanar than for me to do something mystical."
Jason agreed with me, which made me frown at him, but it was still true. I was like someone with a loaded gun that didn't know how to shoot. I would be struggling to figure out how to undo the safety while the bad guys shot me a million times. About two months ago, the only other necromancer I'd ever met had offered to teach me real necromancy, not this voodoo dabbling I was doing. He'd ended up dead before he could teach me much of anything. Funny how many people ended up dead after they met me. No, I didn't kill him.
Cherry stumbled and went down again. Zane and Nathaniel were just suddenly there, one on either side of her. They helped her stand, hugging each other for a moment. Cherry slipped a hand around the waist of both men, leaning her head for a second on Zane's shoulder. They walked this way through the treacherous dark, Cherry leaning heavily on her fellow wereleopards. There was a camaraderie between them that hadn't been there before. Had I done that? Had just having someone to protect them forged some sort of bond? Or had it been Richard's prickling energy? I had a lot of questions and didn't even know if there was anyone who would know. Maybe Marianne would know, if I decided I could trust her.
Jamil offered me his arm. I waved him away. I knew that Raina had slept with him, and I did not want the memory. "Help Jason," I said.
Jamil looked at me for a second, then went and offered his arm to Jason, who refused the offer. "If Anita doesn't need help, neither do I."
"Don't be a hard case," I said.
"Now, that's the pot calling the kettle black," Jason said.
"If I offered you my arm, you'd take it," I said.
"An excuse to hang all over a pretty girl? Sure." Then he seemed to think about it. "But maybe not tonight. I can't call the munin, but there's something in the air tonight." He shivered, rubbing his hands along his bare arms. "Of all the memories Raina had of me, why that one?"
We were both slowly walking as we talked. "The three things Raina liked best were sex and violence and terrorizing people. Making you lukoi hit all her buttons."
Jason stumbled, fell to his knees, and just stayed that way for a second or two. I waited with him, wondering if I should offer to help him up. "I know you wondered why I never did any of her porno movies."
"I guess. I mean you're not exactly the shy type."
He looked up at me, and even by moonlight, there was a sorrow in his face that was deeper and wider than most people ever saw. He was too young for the look in his eyes, but there it was. Innocence lost.
"I'll always remember the look on her face when she killed me."
"She didn't kill you, Jason."
"She tried. It didn't matter to her whether I lived or died. It really didn't."
That one shared memory, and I couldn't argue with him. Raina's pleasure had been more important to her than his life. Like a serial killer.
Jason hunched in upon himself. "But she was my sponsor, and I had to stay with her until my probation period was over. When I could, I got away."
"Is that why you went to stay with Jean-Claude, as his lapwolf? To escape Raina?"
Jason nodded. "Partly." He looked up suddenly and grinned. "Of course, Jean-Claude is way cool."
I shook my head and offered him my hand.
"Think we can risk it?" he asked.
"I think so. I'm not feeling particularly muninish right now."
He took my hand and it was just a hand. His hand in mine. I helped him stand and he staggered just a bit on his feet, which made me wobble. We clung to each other for a second like two drunks leaving a party. I hugged him, and he hugged me back. It was quick. He pulled away first, and looked almost embarrassed. "Don't tell anyone I didn't take my chance to grope you when it was your idea."
I patted him on the back. "Not a soul."
He gave me his usual grin, and we started through the woods, walking close enough to catch each other if we fell. A breeze blew through the trees, rustling everything. The woods were suddenly alive with sound. I turned my face to the wind, hoping it would be cool, but it was hot like the air from an oven.
Jason's baby fine hair moved gently in the breeze. I heard him take a deep breath, then he touched my arm. He spoke low. "I smell the man that I threw into the truck yesterday."
We kept walking as if nothing were wrong. "Are you sure?" I asked.
I saw his nostrils flare as he tested the air. "He smelled like peppermint Lifesavers and cigarettes."
"A lot of people smell like peppermint and cigarettes," I said.
We kept moving, his hand on my arm now. "I also smell gun oil."
Great.
Jamil was waiting for us just up ahead. The three wereleopards waited among the trees. Jamil came back to us, smiling, and enveloped both of us in a big, hearty hug. "You guys are so damned slow tonight." He hugged us against him and whispered, "I smell two, maybe three, to our left."
"One of them is a guy I beat up yesterday," Jason said, smiling as if we were talking about something else entirely.
"Revenge maybe?" He made it a question.
"How far away are they?" I asked.
He drew back with a big very un-Jamil grin. He whispered, "A few yards. I can smell the guns."
I encircled his slender waist with my arm and whispered against his chest. "We don't have any guns. Any suggestions?"
Jason leaned in, laughing, and said, "I don't feel good enough to outrun them."
I patted his arm. "Me, either."
"If they're here for revenge," Jamil said, "then maybe they'll settle for just the two of you."
I drew back from him. I wasn't sure I liked his reasoning. "So?"
"You stay here and make out. They move up to get you, and I get them."
"They've got guns. You don't."
"I'll send Zane and Cherry to the others. They'll bring reinforcements. But we can't let them follow us to the lupanar. We can't take danger there."
"Some werewolf rule?" I asked.
"Yes," he said.
"All right," I said. "But don't let them kill me, okay?"
"What about me?" Jason said.
"Sorry. Him either."
Jamil leaned into both of us. "I suggest the two of you get a lot more cozy, fast, or they're not going to buy it."
I transferred my arm to Jason's waist, but said, "How long have they been watching?"
"Make them think you're drunk, just in case they saw the screaming. Make out, but get on the ground as soon as possible in case they just decide to shoot you." With that comforting thought, Jamil went back to the others. He walked away into the dark with the wereleopards. Zane looked at me as they walked away, but I nodded once, and that seemed to satisfy him. He turned and let Jamil lead him away. I really was going to have to find the leopards a true alpha. They were all so damn submissive.
Jason pushed me up against a tree.
"Watch it," I said.
He grinned at me. "We want it to look real, don't we?"
"I thought we had a moment of real friendship bonding back there," I said.
Jason leaned in towards me as if he were going to kiss me. "Just because we're friends doesn't mean that I don't want to sleep with you." He kissed me, a soft brush of lips.
I frowned at him, not kissing back. "Please tell me that you don't want to sleep with all your female friends."
He put a hand on either side of my head, propping himself against the tree. "What can I say? I'm a guy."
I shook my head. "That's not an excuse."
He leaned his whole body into me in a sort of standing push-up. The muscles in his arms swelled with the effort. "How about because it's me."
I smiled. "That I'll buy." I put my hands on his waist. He was leaning against me but not too hard. He could have been taking a lot more advantage of the situation than he was. I realized that he was being a gentleman. There was a time not long ago that Jason wouldn't have made the effort. We were friends. But we needed to get down on the ground, and this wasn't getting us there.
I glanced, as casually as I could, at the others. I could still see Zane, and Cherry's hair gleamed through the trees. I had a sense that Jamil and Nathaniel were still with them, but it was all that blond hair that made them so visible. If the bad guys had a high-powered rifle, they could shoot us both through the tree. Once the others got out of sight, they might do just that.
I slid my hands up Jason's chest. The skin was soft, but underneath, he was very firm. I knew what that smooth flesh felt like shredding under claws. It wasn't the munin coming back. It was just me flashing on the vision. I balled my hands into fists and forced my hands to his face. I didn't want to do anything that would remind either of us of what we'd just shared. There was always the extra danger that it could bring Raina back. No, I didn't want to be channeling Raina with armed goons in the woods.