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CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

NED

Birdsongs were coming through the open window when Ned awoke, along with the scent of columbines and hibiscus. He blinked, stirring among the sheets...and became aware that he was not alone. A sandy-furred coyote lay next to him, still sleeping soundly.

Instantly it all came back - following the yellow Mustang on the route to Olympia's hillside home, parking the Ford and entering for the third time the house with its foreign scents and profusion of plants. Looking around himself then, Ned had seen all the signs of Olympia's real identity, everything he should have noticed before - the silk curtains; chopsticks and woks of several sizes in the kitchen; Chinese pictograms painted above the kitchen sink; the wall mural in the dining room which depicted the twelve characters of the zodiac. All signs that Olympia had some connection with the Asian world, besides which the wolf herself was once again wearing some kind of loose silky garment with a design of cranes and reeds upon it.

Despite his forbidding concerning Olympia's other job, being around the white wolf was surprisingly easy. Garrett was charming as ever, and Olympia acted like their little conversation at the gala had never happened. She served some sort of British dish made with salmon, which Ned devoured with gusto until belatedly pausing to consider whether Olympia would dare poison him in front of Garrett. Eventually, though, he decided that was unlikely, and went back to eating.

And after dinner, it had been a pleasant evening of conversation with Garrett, relaxing on the comfortable furniture in their living room while some of Olympia's Chinese music played in the background. The coyote had been in a very talkative mood, filling in all sorts of details about his past, so that Ned almost felt guilty about doubting his sincerity.

Then, when Garrett asked him if he wanted to stay the night, it had been no contest that the answer would be yes, so he had fallen asleep peacefully holding the naked coyote against his own equally nude form.

Normally he slept poorly in beds other than his own, but Garrett had an expensive, comfy mattress, and besides that, the whole atmosphere of the place seemed to stimulate relaxation. That should have been odd, considering he was in the dragon's den, so to speak, but everything about Olympia's house, from the foreign scents of flowers, greenery, wood and silks that were pleasant on the nose; to the soothing Chinese music, the birdsongs, and the trickling water from the fountain, all lulling him to sleep like a lullaby, and overall, the comforting presence of the coyote against him, was like a tonic to Ned's tired brain, and he felt more relaxed than he had in ages, and that without the assistance of alcohol.

He pushed himself up against the bed's headboard, carved with designs of what appeared to be a fox and a tiger, and yawned. Garrett looked pretty nice laying there among the sheets, and for a brief moment Ned considered the possibility of waking the coyote for a nice early-morning session of lovemaking, but somehow it seemed better to let him sleep, watching the slow rise of his chest, the muzzle just barely open, the ears back against the pillow.

Silently he slid out of bed. Ah, it felt nice to get up after a good night's sleep. He stretched, tail out straight, and yawned again, then went into the bathroom outside Garrett's bedroom, grinning at himself in the mirror until he remembered that Olympia was also in the house and that he had just walked out of the bedroom stark naked.

Oh well. If she saw anything...it wouldn't kill her, and considering she was a gangster, seeing naked male wolves probably would not shock her much. He chuckled to himself. And besides, I'm pretty good-looking. His tail gave a happy wag. Why did he feel so happy this morning?

A thought came to him. No, it couldn't be that. He and Garrett had not been dating long enough to say they were in love, right?

He dismissed this unsettling thought and attended to business, eyeing the tiled shower, which had some sort of pattern in the tile, probably of Chinese origin, and the plethora of fur-care products on the (also tiled) counters. No surprise; Garrett and Olympia were both celebrities of some degree; they had to take suitable care of their bodies.

A few moments later, he'd pulled on his jeans and walked bare-chested into the living room, silent save for the sound of the fountain. He entered the kitchen, intending to grab a glass of water, but instead caught Olympia's scent; the female wolf had been there very recently. His eyes drifted back, and he saw that he sliding door was open just a crack.

Instinctively, he pushed it open and stepped out into the cool air, his paws cold on the smooth tile of the patio. The grass was damp, although he did not scent rain; perhaps Olympia had a sprinkler system running.

He found the wolf sitting cross-legged on a smooth circle of tile next to the ornamental pond, facing it. The pond was several feet deep and lined with rocks of varying size, from which reeds, lilies, and other water plants sprouted, and more plants grew around the pond's edges. Within the water, perhaps a dozen brightly-coloured koi fish moved lazily around the pond.

Olympia's eyes were closed, her arms each held out in front of her and to the side, palms up. "Have you come to join me in meditation?" she spoke without opening her eyes, voice soft.

"Meditation?" he sat next to her, wondering at this strange pattern of events which led to his now being asked to meditate with the Dragon Master of the Chinese Triad.

The white wolf barely moved, every fibre of her body motionless. "I always meditate in the morning. One's day begins best when you come from a place of inner peace."

Ned snorted. "Inner peace? How can you, of all people, profess to have inner peace? You're a murderer!"

"And you are not?" she countered calmly. "You inspectors may shoot someone because you judge him to be your enemy, which makes you no different than I. I am entirely at peace within."

"We only kill if absolutely necessary, and those who are shot by police are evil, Olympia" he insisted, his own inner peace shattered.

Again, her voice never raised, her eyes still closed. "It is not for man to judge of his fellow men who is, in his perspective, evil, and who is not."

"But-"

"In every war that has ever been fought" Olympia continued, "Both sides believed that they were righteous and their enemy evil."

"So you're saying there is no such thing as definite good or evil?" he asked, confused.

"I'm saying merely that good and evil are based on perception alone."

Ned shook his head in disbelief, looking away from the motionless white wolf, down into the water where the koi moved sluggishly, oblivious to the debate unfolding so near them. How could he ration with someone so lacking in morals? "Believe as you like. I know what I am, and I believe in doing what's right."

Olympia was quiet for a moment. "You see the fish in my pond, yes?"

"I see them" he muttered. His ears had yet to come up since Olympia had started speaking.

"They live peacefully in their aquatic world, unaware of anything beyond rocks, frogs, and water plants. They are sheltered, their reality shaped only by what they can perceive among these waters." She paused, opening her eyes for the first time. "The tea has cooled. Drink" and she directed Ned's attention towards a small wooden tray which rested on the tile before her, on which two small cups of tea reposed.

"You expected me?" Ned questioned warily, but he took one of the cups of tea, which smelled of herbs.

"I am always prepared for guests" Olympia replied simply, but Ned wondered if she meant it in more ways than one. "It is Jasmin tea; beneficial for the body and for the mind."

Ned was not typically a tea drinker; he tended to avoid warm drinks in general, but he sipped the tea while Olympia spoke, and found it mild and not unpleasant. "You are like these fish, my friend. Your perception is made only by what you perceive to be good or evil, and in this narrow-mindedness you fail to see any perspectives which do not fit into the mould of your ideals. What you fail to realise - by no fault of your own, as most people do - is that in reality good and evil do not exist. People merely create them out of desire to categorise their actions or thoughts - and those of others."

It was truly incredible, Ned thought. He, a member of SF Metro, getting some kind of Nietzsche-esque guru advice from Xang Lan, of all people. "So I am somehow narrow-minded because I cannot see anything acceptable in the actions of the Triad?"

Olympia sipped her tea, closing her eyes again. "When you point your finger at my people and condemn them, you do not see the children who have food to eat because their fathers or mothers are members of my Triad."

"You really do not see yourself as in the wrong?" he shook his head. "And yet you say you have inner peace."

"More so than you" Olympia observed.

It was infuriating how she had a perfect answer ready at every turn. "Although I am aware that when you first joined me here this morning, you were at peace within" the wolf continued. "Let us return to that place of peace."

For some reason, Ned just didn't feel like arguing with her anymore. Try as he might, he could not find sense any hostility in Olympia's voice or actions; she really was treating him like an equal. So he found himself closing his eyes, putting the tea mug on the grass, and quietly relaxing. "Release the thoughts of judgement, anger, and anxiety" Olympia murmured quietly. "Let your mind be free so that your heart can feel only peace and love."

"Are you some kind of Buddhist or something?" he asked, amazed at the breadth of this wolf's personality. "I still find it difficult to understand your preaching of love when you are a killer."

"I am neither Buddhist nor Christian nor Muslim" she replied quietly, ignoring the latter part of his comment. "I am a Pantheist. I serve only the universe." Oh, so she was into new age stuff, spirituality, and all that. Maybe not surprising with her apparent interest in meditation.

They sat for some time in silence, Ned puzzling over the complexity of the moment. Olympia faced her own guilt with such honesty that he honestly had to believe that she truly felt she was in the right in what she did. Did that make her some kind of psychopath? Probably not; psychopaths were supposed to not care about anyone. She could have been faking her attachment to Garrett, but Ned was pretty sure the emotion she'd displayed when he'd mentioned her brother had been real. This was all something he wished he could ask Garrett about, but that would mean the coyote would know who his best friend really was.

If he didn't already know....

But I can't accept this, I can't, he thought. I cannot be friends with someone who leads a mafia organisation, of all things. It was wrong. Yet still, sitting there on the clean grass, the morning breeze cool against his bare chest, his nose lifted to intake the scent of the foliage, he did feel at peace, even more so when he let his mind return to the coyote sleeping in the house behind them, the coyote who made him feel all funny inside, and happy at the same time. Was this what Olympia meant by inner peace?

"We really are not so different, you and I" the white wolf said some time later, after they had both drained their tea mugs and rose to walk back to the house. She laid one of her white, rose-dyed paws on his black shoulder. "You have black fur, yet you represent light; I have white fur, yet I represent darkness. It may seem that you are yang and I am yin, but in truth we are each both, because no living creature; indeed nothing within this or any other world at all, is entirely good or evil. That is the lesson which our world as a whole has never learned."

Her dark eyes met his, as if searching for some sign that her message had been received, and then she turned and walked calmly back towards the house, her white tail swishing slowly out from under her silk robe, leaving Ned to ponder the intricacy of Olympia Rogan, and to question whether Garrett was of similar mind.

But no. Whatever he felt about Olympia, Garrett was a good person, and good people do not kill, or steal, or associate by choice with those in the Underworld.

It was not possible.

The coyote himself had risen when Ned returned to the bedroom, and was taking a polo shirt and jeans - both black, no surprise - from his dresser. "You were outside" he grinned, tail beginning to thump against the edge of the bed. "I was worried for a moment that you'd panicked and left."

"Me panic?" Ned joked. "Never." Inspired, he grabbed the slenderer canid by the waist and practically lifted him off the floor, so their muzzles met in a good-morning kiss.

They held the embrace for a minute before Garrett pulled back. "I'm heading for the shower - want to join me?"

"Do you even have to ask?"

That earned him a groping, so they pushed or pulled each other into the bathroom in a tangle of groping paws and kisses. Ned's jeans and boxers came off in a hurry, so that a few minutes later, they were both letting the warm water stream through their fur, each soaping up the other. "Did you have a nice talk with Olympia?" Garrett asked as he scrunched Ned's tail like it was a sponge. "I'm glad to see you two are getting along."

"We had a good talk" Ned said without thinking, and immediately regretted it. Behind Garrett, he could see some of the tiles of the shower, and the black and white design made him think of Olympia's yin and yang reference. "She's certainly an interesting person."

Garrett's wet tail slapped against the tile. "I'm really glad to hear that. If my best friend and my boyfriend didn't get along - no, I don't need to say that."

If you only knew, Ned thought. "Olympia was talking about spiritual stuff" he said. "I didn't know she was into that sort of thing."

"Oh, we both are" Garrett remarked. "Neither of us found conventional religion appealing, so we found something else that fit us better."

"She was encouraging me to find inner peace" Ned told him, rubbing all over the coyote's shoulders.

"Did you find it?"

"I already did...thanks to..." he bent to kiss the coyote again.

Garrett pulled back, ears half-up. "Are you saying....?"

"I don't know what I'm saying" Ned growled, blinking water out of his eyes. "I just know that when I'm around you, I stop fretting about cases and politics and my...past. I can just live in the moment, enjoy life, and most of all....be with you."

Garrett's eyes widened and his ears fell back, but not in a motion of embarrassment or of fear, but one of someone who's just been touched emotionally. "You're saying you..."

Ned pulled the coyote's wet form to him, the scent of wet canines strong in his nose. "I'm not sure I'm quite ready to say...that...yet. But close."

The coyote kissed him softly on the end of his nose. "When you're ready, then" he whispered, and then they kissed again, and after that, no more words came, only the kissing and caressing as paws wandered between legs and under tails, cultivating in Ned lifting the coyote, pinning him against the wall, and thrusting upwards into him, all while they kept their muzzles locked, eyes on each other...when they weren't closed, anyway. Fucking Garrett while standing and while water cascaded over the both of them was a different experience, but this time, their love-making lasted much longer than the romp in the bathroom stall the day before, and was more emotional. Even with the knowledge of who Olympia was, Ned couldn't shake the good feeling that being with this coyote stirred in him, something unexplainable, that came, he felt, from somewhere deeper and older than his mind.

So often in life we focus our minds too much on that which makes us uneasy, or about which we are worrying, and so deprive ourselves of time which might have passed in happiness. Ned wasn't sure he agreed with Olympia's postmodern logic, not concerning the lack of a definable good and evil, anyway, but what he was sure about that morning was that for now, he wanted to focus on what made him feel good, and not just in the physical sense, but in the emotional. Sometime later, when they were tied and Garrett was saying something about the possibility of Ned moving in now, permanently, the wolf just leaned back against the tile, holding his coyote to him, and sighed. This was getting to the point where he cared more about making Garrett happy than about solving the case - or any case.

I may not admit it, he thought. But I'm in love.