The Night Beat

Prosaic City National Cemetery.”
    “Fabulous.” We were going from bad to worse. “Okay, stay there. Contact Monty. It’s not a cause for panic unless one of the other trails ends there, too.”
    “You got it. Uh…what’re your orders in case, ah, we run into difficulties?”
    “If the Prince manifests, Ralph, I want you and the others to run like hounds out of Hell, you got that? You do not engage the Prince!”
    “Okay.” He sounded relieved. Ralph was annoying and overly into the whole pack thing, but he wasn’t an utter moron. He had a tendency to grandstand, but only if I was there in the audience. And self-preservation was an animal instinct.
    “Let me know if anything happens, even if it’s a minor thing.”
    “Will do. Over and out.”
    My wrist-com went dead and I looked at Jack. “We need to get moving. No telling what’s going on.” We got up and I headed out the door.
    “Wagner,” the Chief called. “I want you, alone, for a minute.”
    Jack shrugged and I closed the door behind me. It took a lot of willpower, but I forced myself to move down the hall and hum, so I wouldn’t hear whatever it was the Chief wanted to say to Jack. Some of this self-control came from the fact that it always seemed wrong to me to eavesdrop on people I liked. More was because I didn’t want to hear the Chief warn Jack about the stupidity of this kind of inter-species dating.
    I leaned against the wall and hummed good old “Werewolves of London” again. There was a concert coming up soon. I hadn’t wanted to go without a date, and while Maurice and Ken had both offered to be my escort, and Ralph would have leaped at the chance, I wasn’t into pity dates on either side of the fence. But now…maybe. Then again, as I watched Jack slam out of the Chief’s office, maybe not.
    He strode over to me, looking angry. “What’s wrong?” I figured I knew, but why not pretend, right?
    “Just how damn many surrogate fathers, brothers, and uncles, not to mention far-too-interested ex-boyfriends do you have, exactly?”
    “Uh, no idea. Why?”
    Jack took my arm and started moving us along. “Oh, I just got the ‘you treat her right or I’ll make your life a living hell and I have friends who know how to ensure that’s meant literally’ lecture. I got similar from Ken. And the Count, via Ken’s wrist-com. I got it from Amanda, and Maurice. I got it from Monty and, from what I gathered, Rover. Lord, even the white worm’s giving me lectures.”
    This wasn’t exactly what I’d expected. I felt kind of warm and fuzzy that so many beings cared. “Sorry?”
    “Not your fault. You know, I’m not that much of a jerk, or that much of a womanizer. Am I?”
    “I don’t think so. Then again, you know us werewolves. We’re loyal to a fault.”
    He managed a snort of laughter. “Thank god. I’m okay to say that, right? No smiting, per the lectures?”
    “Right. Though a lot of them like to take the thanks. But, nothing to worry about.”
    “At least that’s one worry I can write off.” He looked at me out of the corner of his eye. “I guess it’s flattering.”
    “How so?” I was going for cool. Cool isn’t a canine trait, however. I was pleased I wasn’t panting at him and my butt was only moving normally for walking.
    “That everyone thinks you’re so into me that I could break your heart without trying.”
    “Oh.” I wondered how to respond to this. “I so totally am” was the truth, but I’d always understood you weren’t supposed to say that before you’d even had a first date. “Oh, not at all” was both a lie and probably not destined to start any relationship well. “We’ll see” seemed bitchy. “I don’t know” was stupid, since I absolutely did. “Doesn’t matter” was a lie.
    Jack slid his arm around my waist. “I don’t plan to break your heart.”
    “No one ever plans that.” The words slipped out before I could stop them.
    He hugged me. “Yeah, I know. How about, I’ll do my best not to break your heart if you do your best not to break mine.”
    “That seems fair to me. Not that I don’t like it, but didn’t the Chief want us pretending for the rest of the squad?”
    Jack sighed. “Yeah.” He stopped, pulled us into a supply closet, and kissed me. “You know, I’ve wanted to kiss you since the first time I saw you.”
    “Really?” My butt was doing its thing. Sometimes it was easier to be in wolf or werewolf form.
    “Yeah. Figured I didn’t have a